The power and sheer quality of the best ice hockey nation on earth proved far too hot for Great Britain’s underdogs to handle here on Sunday night as Canada muscled their way to an emphatic 8-0 World Championships victory.

Britain, who had made an encouraging start to their first appearance at the top level of the sport for 25 years with a narrow 3-1 defeat to Germany on Saturday, found Canada’s collection of NHL superstars a very different proposition.

Britain’s best defenceman Ben O’Connor summed up the night when he said: ‘Canada showed why they play in the NHL and they’re the world’s best. It was like non-league versus Barcelona. They’re top class and we were a step behind them all night.

Canada’s Kyle Turris (left) celebrates with Dante Fabro after scoring his side’s third goal

Great Britain’s Paul Swindlehurst (left) checks Sean Courtier during the World Champs clash

‘But Canada are not the team we expected to take points off anyway. It’s a dream come true just to be here playing them. It’s still a moment I will savour forever. To share that ice with them was a privilege.

‘Now we’ve got to take what we learned tonight and build. This tournament is a long slog, with seven games in 10 days, and we got out injury free so we’ll go forward against Denmark.’

From the moment Tampa Bay’s Mathieu Joseph opened the scoring in the third minute a highly-motivated Canada simply rained shot after shot on Britain’s overworked but still outstanding netminder Ben Bowns.

It quickly became painfully clear there was no chance of GB upsetting all the odds and defeating Canada for the first time since 1938 in Haringey as they seemed to be on a permanent penalty-kill trying to keep their opponents at bay.

There really was little Bowns nor the eight-man British defence could do to halt wave after wave of Canadian attacks as the favourites to win this 16-team tournament took a two-goal lead into the second period and a five-goal advantage into the third.

And Canada did not take pity and ease off the throttle in the third period as they added another three goals without reply, with Nashville’s Kyle Turris and Detroit’s Anthony Mantha both scoring twice for the Canadians.

Kyle Turris scores for Canada on a night where the best ice hockey nation showed their class

Ben Bowns (right) is beaten by Canada once again during Great Britain's humbling

Ben Bowns (right) is beaten by Canada once again during Great Britain’s humbling

After the eighth and last of those goals GB coach Pete Russell moved to protect his most valuable player here in Cardiff’s Bowns by taking him out of the firing line and replacing him with Sheffield’s Jackson Whistle. Bowns will live to fight another day.

GB had their moments and 19-year-old Liam Kirk, the first English born and trained player to be drafted by an NHL club in Arizona, saw his first period shot well saved by Canadian goalie Carter Hart while Coventry’s Ben Lake went close in the second.

But Britain were simply unable to penetrate Hart’s defences and could not emulate the last GB team to face Canada – at the World Championships in Italy in 1994 – who at least managed to score two goals while also conceding eight.

For the sake of perspective it should be remembered that Britain, still ranked 22nd in the world, have done exceptionally well just to be here after successive surprise and thrilling promotions from the third flight.

Jackson Whistle, Great Britain's back-up goalkeeper, pounces on a loose puck on Sunday night

Jackson Whistle, Great Britain’s back-up goalkeeper, pounces on a loose puck on Sunday night

Nothing illustrates the respective levels of the teams more than their wage bills, with Canada’s team of mainly young NHL players earning 60 million US dollars between them in the season that is just coming to a close in North America.

Britain, by contrast, barely scrape one million, with their collection of mainly home-grown Elite League professionals taking home between £30,000 and £50,000 a year each.

And all is certainly not yet lost, with GB knowing that a victory against either of the other two weaker teams in their group in France and Denmark should be enough to save them from the plight of their 1994 contemporaries who went straight back down.

They will be continued to be backed by quite outstanding support from the 500 or so British supporters who have travelled here to Slovakia’s second city and sang their hearts out on Sunday night.

Now GB must lick their wounds and regroup before Tuesday’s game against the Danes when they really do have a chance of doing more than simply making up the numbers against the traditional powerhouses of the sport.