Ice Hockey: Cooper treble keeps Britain in the chase

Great Britain continued their excellent progress in the world championships in Eindhoven when they recorded their fourth win in four matches with a 10-0 victory over Bulgaria yesterday.

Kevin Conway, with his sixth goal of the tournament, opened the account after five minutes and there were further strikes by Tony Hand, Doug McEwen, Ian Cooper and Stephen Johnson to put Britain 5-0 up by the end of an impressive first period.

Scott Morrison and Cooper scored in the second period as Britain forged further ahead, and then Cooper completed his hat-trick midway through the third. There was also a second goal for Johnson and one for Iain Robertson.

It was quite different from the last time the two nations met, in Pool C in Copenhagen two years ago, when Bulgaria won 5-4.

The result, which followed wins against the pre-tournament favourites Poland, as well as Denmark and Japan, left a confident Great Britain in second place in Pool B. Everything is now set up for what should be the decisive encounter this evening against the leaders, the Netherlands, who last night beat Japan 5-3.