Great Britain failed to finish the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge with a win as they went down to their second successive defeat at Nottingham's National Ice Centre.

The result saw them finish bottom of the four-team tournament having drawn their opening game with Slovenia before being crushed 6-0 by Belarus on Saturday.

Bracknell Bees netminder Joe Watkins was restored between the pipes but was caught out of position as Balazs Ladanyi gave Hungary the lead after 98 seconds.

Levente Szuper, one of only three Hungarians to be drafted by a National Hockey League team, pulled off a stunning save to deny David Clarke before GB levelled thanks to a Rob Wilson thunderbolt.

GB captain David Longstaff then hit the frame of the goal as the sides went in level at the first break.

But Britain made a much better start to the second session and took the lead inside three minutes when Clarke produced a neat finish to leave Szuper helpless.

Hungary then hit a pipe in search of an equaliser, which duly came from Ladanyi, his second of the match.

Watkins was again caught out, this time by Gergely Majoross, shortly afterwards and broke his stick in anger.

Valuable ice time

Britain had a great opportunity to restore parity when they were awarded a penalty shot after Mike Ellis had been impeded.

However, Longstaff failed to test Szuper and the chance went begging.

Nevertheless, GB produced an even better start to the final period when Jeff Hoad beat Szuper via a deflection within 18 seconds of the restart to bring his side level.

But that was as good as it got for Britain as goals from Krisztian Palkovics (two) and Laszlo Orso earned Hungary their first points of the tournament.

Despite failing to register a win over the three days, several British players gained valuable ice time at international level in the long countdown to the 2006 Winter Olympics.