The youth team of Ukrainian hockey won the World Youth Championship (U20) in the 1B division, held in the capital of Estonia - Tallinn.
Having defeated all five matches, our guys received the right to perform in the second in the rank of the division of world youth hockey in the second rank - 1a. That is, to be a step away from the elite.
The debut of Ukrainian " During this time, our guys performed in groups C and B, the highest group, division 1. 123 matches have already been played by our team, of which almost half-57-got off the victories of the " In 2011, taking the last place in division 1a, our team was forced to sink into the 1b division, where it had already lingered for a long time.
The Championship in Tallinn began the Ukrainian team with victory - 8: 1 - in a duel with the owners. Then success came - 7: 2 - in the game with Japan's hockey players, who were considered the favorites of the championship. Further victories over the national teams of Italy - 6: 5, Poland - 3: 0, South Korea - 5: 2. Having scored 15 points in five matches with the difference between the goals 29:10 " The remarkable success of the team, which was led by coach Alexander Bobkin to this triumph.
Looked into the application of the Ukrainian national team at this tournament. It counted 17 players who play abroad - in the clubs of Canada, the Czech Republic, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland, Poland. And only four represented Ukrainian clubs "
From the composition of our team, which won the first place in Tallinn, 15 players will be able to perform by age in 2026 in the tournament of prefabricated division 1a. The rivals of our team there will be prefabricated Norway, Slovenia, France, Austria and Kazakhstan. The best team following the results of the tournament will go to an elite division.
Among the best organizing committee of the tournament, by tradition, he called the best players of the tournament.
The 18-year-old goalkeeper of our national team Alexander Levshin was the best goalkeeper. He reliably spent all five matches from the first to the last minute, growing 100 out of 110 shots on the board of his gate. And in the game with the Polish national team, Alexander completely retained his gate "
The best defender was called 17-year-old Ukrainian Nikolai Kosyrev. And the most useful player was recognized by the 19-year-old defender of our national team Nikita Polonitsky, who played in defense extremely reliably.
Alexander Bobkin, head coach of the Ukrainian national team (U20): - I am glad that in a very important match for us with the Japanese national team we achieved a convincing victory - 7: 2. The guys tuned in to the game in the combat. The second period was a success-to two goals abandoned in the first 20-minute, we added four more. I note that we did not have a pronounced leader - we had a leader in our site.
Sergey Mazur, new president of the Hockey Federation of Ukraine: - Despite all the current difficulties in our hockey, as well as the war, the guys and the coaching staff gave Ukraine a convincing victory. In Tallinn, I saw a combat team with character.
Her players went through a difficult test and proved that hockey in Ukraine is alive.
January was successful for the student hockey team of Ukraine. Speaking at the World Universiade in Turin (Italy), our team in the match for bronze medals won - 5: 3 - the US team.
And in the spring, two more hockey teams of Ukraine await testing. The national team will play at the World Cup in the division 1a from April 23 to May 3, and the U18 team will also compete in division 1A from April 20 to 26. We wish them success!