Great Britain Roster

1994

Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament – 1994 in Sheffield.

Venues – Sheffield Arena.

Great Britain qualified to playoff for a place in the 1994 Winter Olympics by virtue of winning Pool B of the World Championships in April 1993. They were joined by Pool B runners-up Poland, Pool C champions Latvia, and Asian Cup winners, Japan. Slovakia completed the five-team tournament as the International Ice Hockey Federation gave special permission for them to enter following the countries political separation from the Czech Republic. This separation on January 1^st 1993, came too late for Slovakia to qualify via the usual Pool C route.

Great Britain opened their account with a creditable draw against Poland, a game that saw both coaches pleased not to have lost. Game Two against the speedy Japanese saw Great Britain lose their first full international fixture in over two years. The Japanese coped well with the physical style played by Great Britain and showed they could find the back of the net. Trailing 3-2 in the final minute, coach Dampier pulled netminder John McCrone for a sixth skater only for Iga to score into the unguarded goal at 59:42. Game Three against Latvia proved to be decisive as needing to win and after taking a 2-0 lead inside five minutes, Great Britain, “ran out of gas” according to coach Alex Dampier. The smooth-skating and slick passing Latvians recovered from the early setback of Todd Biners’ opening minute goal by scoring three times in a five-minute second period spell, eventually running out comfortable victors. The fifth and final game saw the hosts take on the might of Slovakia. Politically, a new country, but in hockey terms a force to be reckoned with. Bristling with players who were either past or then current NHLers the Slovakians, needing just a draw to progress to Lillehammer, cruised past a doggedly defending Great Britain side for whom Doug McEwen grabbed the only goal.

Details compiled from the pages of the 1994-95 Ice Hockey Annual

World Championships, Pool A – 1994 in Italy.

Venues – Bolzano.

What a difference a year can make in sport and the words of Alex Dampier after the success in Eindhoven, counselling caution in respect of the way the domestic scene was, turned out to be profoundly prophetic. All the hype from the Pool B success twelve months earlier was over as Great Britain walked straight into their first game against the might of the Russians less than 48 hours after eleven members of the twenty-three man squad came off the ice having played in the playoff off finals at Wembley.

Badly prepared and largely outclassed, Great Britain nonetheless battled valiantly in all their games, but the greater physical style and lapses of concentration contributed to their downfall. This was especially so in the relegation play-off game where goals were surrendered during  powerplays helping the cause of Norway.

The tournament though was far from the disaster that mere statistics represent and coach Alex Dampier provided some realistic assessments when observing that what happened in Bolzano “was no surprise. The hard thing was the guys losing all the time, they are not used to it. Sides like Italy and Austria are prepared for going into the tournament and looking for one game to win, but this pool is like playing poker. You gotta sit back and don’t try to beat anybody in particular until you get to the lower teams. I’m not particularly worried about going back down. If we’d stayed in Pool A, it would have been another year of survival… where you go there and get beat up for three of four games, then try to sneak a victory.”

On the subject of preparation Dampier did however agree that “the whole thing needs to be looked at because until now we’ve done it on a wing and a prayer. We need to get together more and prepare better for future tournaments even at Pool B level. Every time we go away, we basically shake hands at the airport – I’d rather get the handshake done a little earlier next time.”

Not surprisingly, points were in short supply with three of the squad tying the top scoring mark with three points from the six games played. Kevin Conway hit 2+1 whilst Doug McEwen and Rick Fera each accounted for 1+2. The shut-out by Germany was the first inflicted on Great Britain in World Championship hockey since Hungary had beaten them 8-0 in the Pool C tournament in Peking in 1981.

Compiled by Anthony Beer, using material reported at the time in the Ice Hockey News Review.