ASSISTANT captain Mark Richardson proved the hero as Pete Russell's Great Britain began their World Championship Division 1B campaign with a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory over Croatia in the Netherlands.

The Cardiff Devils defenceman tied the game up with just five seconds remaining, after GB pulled goaltender Ben Bowns, before grabbing the game-winning goal 11 seconds into the additional period.

It completed a remarkable late fightback by GB, who had trailed 2-0 before Sheffield Steelers blue-liner Ben O'Connor pulled a goal back on the powerplay at 52.57.

Croatia took the lead at 16.57 when Michael Glumac converted short-handed before they had an Andrew Murray 'goal' ruled out after a video replay.

But they did make it 2-0 at 46.52 with Nathan Perkovich scoring on the powerplay after Russell Cowley was penalised for tripping.

Britain's next game is against Estonia on Tuesday before facing Korea (Thursday), Netherlands (Saturday) and Lithuania (Sunday).