World Ice Hockey Championship: Ukraine defeated Romania and will play a decisive match with Poland today
1 May 08:22
Ukraine’s national men’s ice hockey team has won an impressive victory over the tournament hosts, Romania, in its third match at the World Championship in Division 1A. The game was marked by a bright start and confident dominance of the Ukrainian team during all three periods, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The first period started very dynamically for the Ukrainian team. Already in the second minute of the match, the Romanian team violated the rules, which led to a numerical advantage for Ukraine. Although this majority was not realized, it helped the Ukrainians seize the initiative. Immediately after the power play ended, the Ukrainians continued to put pressure, and it paid off – Viktor Zakharov opened the scoring after a combination in which Borodai and Deniskin took the puck behind the opponent’s goal, and Deniskin gave an assist to Zakharov. For Zakharov, this is the third match in a row in which he has scored a goal.
A minute and a half after the first goal, Oleg Lyalka increased Ukraine’s lead to 2-0 with a brilliant individual pass. And at the end of the ninth minute, the familiar Deniskin-Zakharov-Boroday trio scored again: Deniskin took the puck away, Zakharov made a pass, and Andriy Borodai scored the third goal. After that, the Romanians were forced to replace their goalkeeper.
In the second period, the Ukrainian team continued to dominate the ice. Our hockey players controlled the puck most of the time, were constantly in the opponent’s zone, actively fired at the home team’s goal and effectively applied high pressure, which did not allow the Romanians to organize quality attacks.
The constant pressure from the Ukrainian team made the hosts nervous and make mistakes, which led to six minutes of penalty time for the Romanian team. Although the Ukrainians failed to score during the power play, after one of these attempts, the Blue and Yellows managed to close the exhausted Romanians in their zone and Deniskin scored a double, bringing the score to 4-0.
Despite the comfortable lead, the Ukrainian team came into the third period as focused and disciplined as possible. Thanks to this, Ukrainian goalkeeper Dyachenko was able to record his first shutout in this tournament. This shutout victory was a great birthday present for team captain Merezhko, who turned 27 on April 30.
Match statistics
World Championship, Division 1, Group A
Sepsi Arena, Sfintu-Gheorghe, Romania
Ukraine – Romania 4: 0 (3: 0, 1: 0, 0: 0)
Goals: 1: 0 – Zakharov (Deniskin, Borodai), 04:10. 2:0 – Lialka, 05:44. 3:0 – Deniskin (Zakharov, Boroday), 08:58. 4: 0 – Deniskin (Boroday, Ratushny), 37:14.
Ukraine: Dyachenko (Levshyn); Sysak – Merezhko, Deniskin – Zakharov – Boroday; Grebenyk – Pangelov-Yuldashev, Trakht – Fadeev – Peresunko; Ratushny – Varava, Lyalka – Sadovikov – Krivoshapkin; Dakhnovsky, Korenchuk – Kupriyanov – Vorona, Yanishevsky.
Romania: Toke (Adorian – from 08:58); Ferenc – Williams, Balazs – Reseg – S. Rokali; Haaranen – Mesicammen, Sandor-Sekely – Molnar – Valharz; Ladai – Shallo, Imre – Gliga – Skaccov; Bors, Filip – N. Rokali – Gaido, Fodor.
Throws: 26:22 (10:9, 11:3, 5:10)
Penalties: 10:10 (0:2, 2:6, 8:2)
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What’s next
This victory is of great importance for the Ukrainian national team. First, it guaranteed the team a place in Division 1A for the next season. But at the same time, it significantly increased the chances of getting into the top 2 in the championship, and thus to be promoted. After all, the first two teams in the tournament will get to the highest division of the World Cup of Hockey, where the world’s greats play.
Ukraine will play its next match today, May 1, against Poland. The game will take place at 16:00 Kyiv time.
Poland also has 6 points after three matches, which makes this meeting extremely important in the fight for promotion. Moreover, Italy will meet Great Britain today, which means that one of these teams (or both) will lose points. For the Ukrainian team, this means that everything is in their hands. Victories in regular time over Poland and Japan in the two remaining matches will guarantee Ukraine’s entry into the top division.
On the other hand, a defeat in the match against Poland would leave our team with virtually no chance of qualifying.
It is worth saying that the Polish national team is quite a match for Ukrainian hockey players – in December 2024 and April 2025, these teams played four friendly matches, winning two victories each.
What bookmakers say
Bookmakers consider the Polish national team to be the favorite of the match. One of the bookmakers gives odds of 2.27 for its victory, 4 for a draw, and 2.75 for Ukraine’s victory. However, Ukraine has already debunked bookmakers’ predictions when it defeated Italy in a match in which it was considered a huge underdog.
Where to watch the broadcast
Live broadcasts of all the matches of the World Ice Hockey Championship in Division 1A can be watched on the website, TV channel and YouTube channel of Suspilne Sport.
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