Great start for British newcomers, but lose 10-3 to defending champs

The defending champions from the United States won their first game against the new team to the Top Division. Although Brit Rob Shelton opened the scoring and had a hat-trick in the end, it wasn´t enough, and the final score was pretty clear in favour of the US.

As expected, the United States entered the game in a very active way. Noe, the hat-trick scorer from the 2013 Dresden final, hit the post after only a minute. But even his team had also other chances, it was Great Britain who suprisingly took the lead thanks to Rob Shelton.

However, it took only two minutes for Travis Noe to tie the score and in the second period, Team USA stepped into high gear. Cody Kettler and Junior Cadiz made the favourite happier and after goals by Rafael Rodriguez, Patrick Lee and Tyler Spezia the score was 6-1 in favour of the US.

The British gave the chance to second goalie Alex Birch after the second break. His shutout lasted just 1:56 and then Patrick Lee got the seventh American goal. Rob Shelton luckily answered from behind the goal line but Matt White and Travis Noe made the British excitement really short.

The goal flood stopped a bit then, like the US players didn’t want to finish the ten. That was the right opportunity for British hero Rob Shelton. When five minutes remaining, he entertained his whole bench with the hat-trick! „I’m pretty happy about that, but they would be really nice if the score was better. It was a big experience for our team, I think the second two periods were really good from us,“ said Shelton.

But the Americans finally hit the double digit at time 47:36. Matt White waited for a while before he sent the puck right into the corner. „To start the tournament with a win is always a good feeling, we had the game under control all the time. Obviously, we wanted to beat Brits by a bigger margin. Our goal is to get a gold medal,“ confirms Travis Noe, who had two goals and four assists.