Ice hockey – Shields aims to feed off Belfast buzz

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.”