Colin Shields is determined to use home advantage to create history from Sunday in the World Championship.
Belfast’s SSE Arena is the venue for the Division 1 Group B tournament with the home side facing-off their campaign against Croatia on Sunday (4pm). Then they face Estonia, Lithuania and Netherlands and Japan.
Glasgow-born Shields, who plays for Belfast Giants and who once starred for Paisley Pirates, said: “Hosting a World Championship is exciting and we know there will be pressure on us to perform, but you dream of moments like this.”
The 37-year-old forward, who was once drafted by National Hockey League cracks, Philadelphia Flyers, added: “The people of Northern Ireland love their sport and they will turn up in their numbers. I have spoken to lots of people who are also flying over.”
Shields added: “There will be a real buzz around Belfast next week and it is important we feed off that buzz.
“We’ve had a good training camp so far and the two (recent challenge) games against Poland gave us some excellent match practice.”
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