Sheffield Steelers star Brendan Connolly scores on Great Britain debut

The hard-grafting forward made his long-waited debut for Great Britain in Thursday's Olympic qualifying Group J game against Romania and scored in a tight 4-3 win.

He struck the puck home after a smart pass from behind the net by another Canada born dual national, Belfast Giants' Ben Lake at 32:50.

It was Connolly's 25th goal of the 2019-20 season - and it will have meant a lot to the player whose father was born in Northern Ireland.

As Dean Woolley's picture shows, his club and team captain Jonathan Phillips led the applause for him after he managed to find himself some open space and pot home the puck.

Connolly joined Dallas Ehrhardt, Robert Farmer and Matthew Myers on the scoresheet for his new "band of brothers."

But the favourties' slim margin of the victory over the least fancied side in the weekend tournament must serve as a warning to GB coach Pete Russell.

He is going to want to see a better display on Saturday and Sunday against Estonia and then Hungary this weekend at the Nottingham National Ice Centre if they are to be successful in their quest for 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Phillips was happy with the win but admits the GB performance wasn't much of a spectacle.

"It was a bit of a scrappy game from our side, we had a bit more of puck possession, but I think at times we didn't make the right play," said Great Britain veteran.

"We knew it was going to be tough, they're a good team, they work hard and they try to play aggresively.

"They made it into this group for a reason."Coach Russell added: “I was pleased to win the first game against what is a very good team.

“They are one division below the top flight now and improving all the time" said the coach.

“We tried a few things that didn’t come off, but overall it was a good performance.”