Britain’s Winter Games hopes dashed

Coach Tony Hand could not fault the effort of his players after Great Britain’s 4-2 defeat to France ended their hopes of qualifying for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Having begun the tournament in Latvia with a 6-2 loss to the hosts on Thursday night, Britain had to win their final two games of Group E to have any chance of reaching Russia.

But goals from Laurent Meunier (powerplay), Pierre Edouard Bellemare (delayed penalty goal) and Damien Fleury put France three ahead after 35 minutes.

Craig Peacock and Robert Lachowicz, who marked his 23rd birthday yesterday with his first international goal, hauled Britain back to within one but an error from netminder Stevie Lyle behind his own net gifted Charles Bertrand a goal and ended GB’s hopes.

Hand said: “I thought we battled hard. I thought we took soft penalties which will hurt you when you play a team like France. “I was happy with the way we fought back. We came here to compete and I thought we competed well.”