Hero Davies fires GB to ice hockey salvation

GReAT BRITAIN dramatically fought back from three down against France to win 4-3 in overtime in Slovakia yesterday and stay at the top level of the ice hockey World Championships. Ben Davies, the Welshman who plays for Guildford Flames, hit the sudden-death winner in the extra period as GB defied all the odds to defeat a vastly more experienced France side in what amounted to a relegation play-off. GB, playing at the elite level for the first time in 25 years, had won successive promotions to be in Kosice but it had looked as though they were heading straight back down when they lost their first six games against the best teams in the world. ‘It’s pretty surreal,’ said Davies. ‘everything seemed against us but it’s not our character to give up and we stuck at it.’