Great Britain v Poland: Robert Dowd hopes Leeds international can help hockey grow further

Friday night sees the first-ever international hockey game held at Elland Road Ice Arena – home of two-time NIHL National champions, Leeds Knights – as GB take on Poland.

The Knights have quickly grown the sport in the city and surrounding area, selling out the 2,200-capacity venue on a number of occasions over the past two seasons.

The GB game is also close to a sell-out, with only a handful of single seats left.

And Sheffield Steelers’ captain Dowd – who last week led his team to an historic grand slam when they added the Elite League play-off crown to their league and Challenge Cup titles – believes staging an international game at a new venue such as Leeds will only help further interest in the sport.

“Taking it to Leeds to get some more eyeballs on the national team is fantastic,” said GB skipper Dowd, who is an injury doubt for Friday night’s game.

“The Knights have done fantastically well there and that has helped grow the game – to be selling the number of tickets that they have been this past couple of seasons, they’ve done an awesome job.”

Following the warm-up games – the two meet again at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena on Saturday – GB head coach Pete Russell and his players will return to their training camp to continue their preparations for the World Championships which get underway in Czechia on May 10.

They begin their Group A campaign against Canada the following day and will also face-off against Finland, Switzerland, Czechia, Denmark, Norway and Austria.