Three Sheffield Steelers in Great Britain Olympics qualifying squad
'D' man Ben O'Connor and forwards Rob Dowd and Jonathan Phillips have all been retained from the squad which secured a silver medal at last year's World Championship (Division 1B) in Holland.
The team will take on hosts Italy, Netherlands and Serbia in the four-team tournament in Cortina between February 11-14, with the winners advancing to the final stage of qualifying ahead of the Winter Olympics in Korea in 2018.
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Hide AdSheffield Steelers swoop for Edinburgh Capitals import Ryan HayesDave Simms’ column: I’m a fat Brummie... but an on-loan Yorkshireman too!Russell said: "We have selected a large part of last year's silver-medal team and rightly so as they were brilliant on and off the ice.
"It's a very exciting experience and a very tough challenge that awaits us in Cortina and we all can't wait to get started."
Squad - Netminders: B Bowns (Cardiff), S Murphy (Belfast); Defencemen: J Batch (Cardiff), S Lee (Nottingham), B O'Connor (Sheffield), D Phillips (Manchester), M Richardson (Cardiff), P Swindlehurst (Nottingham), J Weaver (Telford); Forwards: J Boxill (Belfast), D Clarke (Nottingham), R Cowley (Coventry), B Davies (Braehead), M Davies (Manchester), R Dowd (Sheffield), R Farmer (Nottingham), M Haywood (Braehead), R Lachowicz (Nottingham), M Myers (Nottingham), C Peacock (Belfast), J Phillips (Sheffield), C Shields (Belfast).