By Paul Woloszyn

Great Britain's David Clarke missed one of the penalties in the shootout

Great Britain's bid to make it to the 2010 Winter Olympics suffered a blow as they lost on penalties to Poland.

GB hopes had been high after an early David Clarke powerplay goal against the hosts in the pre-qualifying tournament.

The Poles then moved ahead before Danny Meyers forced overtime late on, but Poland prevailed 1-0 in a shootout.

GB need to win Group D to move into the final qualifying round in February and on Friday, they face Japan who began their bid with a 7-0 win over Romania.

"It was one hell of a game of hockey," said GB coach Paul Thompson.

"I thought we deserved to tie the game in the third period and overall I'm very proud of our performance. It shows how close we are as nations.

The guys are low because they've just lost a game, but I like that because it shows they care GB coach Paul Thompson

"It's particularly galling to lose on penalties again, especially as we were getting stronger. They were on their heels.

"The guys are low because they've just lost a game, but I like that because it shows they care. It's not all over. We've got to go out there and win our last two games, that's all we need to focus on."

Britain had not beaten Poland in eight years and were looking to repeat the class of 2000, who had emerged victorious on the Poles' own ice in Katowice eight years ago.

Poland were quick to threaten in the Polish town Sanok but Stephen Murphy did well to keep out a close range Marcin Kolusz shot.

Having survived that scare, and with Poland down to four men after a penalty against Rafal Dutka, Clarke made the most of the powerplay chance, firing in from just inside the blueline to mark his 50th cap in style.

The lead lasted just over two minutes before Maciej Urbanowicz struck a shot from range past Murphy, the forward scoring against Britain just as he had in Poland's narrow win on penalties in April at the World Championships in Austria.

The goal gave Poland impetus and Murphy had to be at his best, the Manchester Phoenix netminder justifying his selection ahead of Stevie Lyle in the starting line-up with two fine stops to keep the teams level at the end of the first period.

The Poles, eight places above GB in the world rankings at 21, continued to have the better of affairs at the start of the second session and might have moved in front had Krzysztof Zapala not flicked over.

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Poland did go ahead on the half-hour and this time Zapala made no mistake, finding the net on the powerplay.

Thompson's side were taking too many careless penalties but managed to go into the second intermission trailing by just the one goal.

In the opening minute of the final period they could indeed have restored parity after Jonathan Weaver's defence-splitting pass freed Jonathan Phillips, who was denied by Polish netminder Rafal Radziszewski.

With both sides looking to attack it was end-to-end action and it was GB who exerted most pressure as they looked to force an additional period.

However, with under four minutes remaining they got the equaliser - Meyers firing clinically high into the net.

A tense end to the 60 minutes saw both sides go close, but for a second time in seven months it would take overtime and penalties to separate them.

And just as at the World Championships, Britain had to be content with a point as Greg Chambers shot wide to seal a 1-0 shootout victory, and two points, for Poland.

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