Great Britain once again came agonisingly close to a big upset World Championships victory when Denmark needed overtime to defeat them 3-2 in Riga on Tuesday. GB took their first point of this year’s tournament on Tuesday when they held the Danes, who had defeated highly fancied Sweden in their first game, to a 2-2 draw after regulation time. But Britain ran into penalty trouble in the extra sudden-death five minutes and, with Ben Lake sitting in the box on a tripping call, Markus Lauridsen fired home the winner for Denmark and averted a shoot-out with just 25 seconds left. They have said they want to compete rather than just make up the numbers and they are doing that the more the tournament goes on.And, remarkably, as it stands GB have a better record at this year’s competition in Latvia than Canada and Sweden, two of the giants of the game. ‘That penalty cost us in overtime,’ admitted GB captain Jonathan Phillips, who was making his 100thappearance for his country. ‘It was a bit of desperation really and there was only so many chances we could give them. But we’re really disappointed to just get one point. We’ve just got to keep going now. We’ve always had a never say die attitude and each day we get better and keep building. If we keep doing that the wins will start coming for us.’ Denmark inflicted on GB the worst result of their return to the highest level of the World Championships in Kosice two years ago when they crashed to a 9-0 thrashing.But this was always destined to be much closer from the moment GB took the lead for the first time in the tournament in their third game. Ben O’Connor, GB’s outstanding defenceman, fired home from the point into the top corner of the Danish net with two minutes 33 seconds on the board. It was to prove a short-lived advantage. Julian Jacobsen equalised for the Danes and then their best player Nicklas Jensen gave them the lead when he took advantage of a penalty call on Ross Venus to fire past Ben Bowns on the power-play. Britain, who lost 7-1 to Russia in their first game but then slipped to a narrow 2-1 defeat to Slovakia in their second, were far from beaten and saw good second period chances through Liam Kirk, Lake and Robert Dowd saved by Sebastian Dahm. The equaliser that GB richly deserved came as time began to run out in the third period. Mike Hammond, who played club hockey in Denmark earlier this season before joining Coventry for the Elite Series, fired home a pinpoint pass from Lake. That strike got them on the board and GB, who out-shot Denmark in the final two periods, would have fancied their chances of winning a shoot-out with Bowns again in outstanding form, making another 25 saves in regulation time alone.GB thought long and hard about leaving Bowns out for this one to give his back-up Jackson Whistle another game and save the Yorkshireman for Wednesday’s winnable encounter against Belarus. But Bowns insisted he wanted to play against opponents who represented one of GB’s best chances of a World Championships victory and he was justified with another brilliant performance to catch the eye of the wider hockey world. A lot of us have been together for a lot of years now and the brotherhood has kept us going,’ added Phillips as he reflected on his long association with GB. ‘We’ve had our ups and downs but we’ve been promoted two levels now and that’s the foundations of what we are doing here.’ They are proving to be excellent foundations but GB just need to take the final step now, perhaps against Belarus in their next game. B momentarily sat seventh in Group A of this year’s tournament until Sweden won in the evening slot, but have achieved more points and goals through three games than Team Canada. The players deserve all the credit. They are out there blocking shots, giving it all for their country, and then when we get our chances, you see some top-end skill from guys making great decisions,” said Co-Head Coach Corey Neilson. “Every game we are getting better. Of course, we were disappointed not to beat Denmark, but it’s hard not to be encouraged by how we are playing. We’re going to have to be physical, competitive and throw our bodies on the line against Belarus. Everything I have seen from this group so far shows they are willing to do and we will see how it shakes out. Opponents Belarus are fifth, three points ahead of GB, thanks to a win over Sweden and overtime loss against the Czech Republic. The nations have not met since 2004, when Belarus ran out 5-4 winners in Group A of Division 1 in Oslo. World’s governing hockey body IIHF denounces Latvia’s decision to remove Belarusian flags The state flag of Belarus, raised near the Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija in downtown Riga, accommodating the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship national teams, was replaced on May 24 by the white, red and white flag, which symbolizes the political opposition in Belarus. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has denounced a decision of the Latvian Foreign Ministry and municipal authorities of Riga to remove the national flag of Belarus at the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championship, according to a statement from the IIHF press office on Tuesday. The state flag of Belarus, raised near the Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija in downtown Riga, accommodating the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship national teams, was replaced on May 24 by the white, red and white flag, which symbolizes the political opposition in Belarus. According to earlier local media reports, the flag was replaced personally by Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics and Riga Mayor Martins Stakis.