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Chances hard to come by for Hammond

Hammond 2 E1558050124740, British Ice Hockey

Great Britain forward Mike Hammond has scored twice in the World Championships so far, but admits it’s much harder to get the chances to score at this level.

The Manchester Storm man has been in the crucial spot with finishes against Germany and USA so far, but has had other opportunities to inflict damage win their opponents.

But he’s been pleased to get his name on the scoresheet and attributes his relative success to his team-mates.

He said: “Getting the chances to score them has been tougher than normal because of the high quality we’re up against.  You have to pucks deep and got to outwork teams because every team is skilled here.

“We have to try to get pucks and bodies to the net and that’s the best chance to score at this level.

“It’s a special moment to score for your country for sure.  It’s high calibre hockey and seeing the puck go in has been pretty special so far.

WATCH NOW: Hammond nets his second of the tournament against USA

“I’ve been lucky enough to score two, although I’ve had other chances, but I’m playing with good players, which also helps.”

Hammond took us into the camp, particularly the 24 hours between the 9-0 humbling by Denmark and the glorious failure of the 6-3 loss to USA and how they dusted themselves down to bounce back in impressive fashion.

He added: “The mood is really good right now after the performance against Team USA.  We took a little back step against Denmark, but we regrouped and everything is great looking forward and we can only keep getting better and that France game on Monday is getting big for us.

“After the Denmark game, we had a couple of team meetings, watched some video and saw where we went wrong.  I think we were a little starstruck by the Canada game and waited for someone else to do it instead of taking it into our own hands.

“Against USA, we stuck to what got us here, by sticking to the system, working hard and that never-say-die attitude that has done well for us.

“I think we can take the confidence we had from our game on Wednesday and if we can do it against them, I don’t see why we can’t do it against the other teams we have to play, starting with Finland tonight.”

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