The national team of Ukraine will not fail, but it is not worth demanding from it the struggle for access to division 1A

Ice Hockey World Cup: Ukrainian national team can save face in war conditions

Today the Ukrainian national ice hockey team will play its first match at the World Championship in the third most important division 1B. In addition to our team, squads from Japan, Estonia, Serbia, Poland take part in the tournament in the Polish city of Tychy, and, by the will of the calendar, our team will start its tournament path by playing with the Serbs.

Participate in spite of the war

On March 20, at an extraordinary meeting of the Council of the Ukrainian Ice Hockey Federation, a decision was made on the participation of the national and youth team of Ukraine in the upcoming competitions – the Ice Hockey World Championship. Despite the bloody hostilities in the state, the national team of Ukraine under the leadership of Vadym Shakhraychuk began preparations for the world forum. Moreover, the Ukrainian representation is also provided at the Junior World Championship among players under 18 years old. The green light for preparation and participation in the world competition was given to the team led by head coach Alexander Bobkin. World Cup 2022 in the IB division for our team takes place in Asiago, Italy from April 25 to May 1. Among the rivals of the blue-yellows are the teams of Italy, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland. By the way, our team got off to a great start at the World Cup, beating the teams of Poland (6:1) and the hosts of the tournament, the Italians (6:3), with a big score in two opening matches. Ahead of the young Ukrainians are decisive battles to rise in the class and get into the second most important division 1A – against Slovenia (tomorrow, April 28), Hungary (April 29) and Austria (May 1).

But the women's national team of Ukraine in 2022 missed the World Championship in Division IIIA, which was held on April 4-7 in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The participation of Evgeny Alipov's team in this tournament is impossible due to the fact that most of the girls – candidates for the national team are in different parts of the world, and the timing of the competition will not allow the team to be properly prepared.

From the defense to the national team

Forward of the Kyiv Sokol Dmitry Nimenko, after the start of the Russian invasion, signed up for the defense of Kyiv and did not think about returning to the ice. However, the National Ice Hockey Federation, and Ukraine as a whole, represented by the state, decided that the national hockey team should go to the World Championship, which will be held at the end of April. And in the middle of the month the team left for Hungary to prepare.

“To be honest, I did not expect at all that our national team would gather at this time. I was sure that we would miss the World Cup. All played out in an instant. Vadim Shakhraychuk called me three or four days before leaving for Miskolc. According to the coach, the state insists on the team's performance at the World Cup.Since I was in Terborne, I reached the border quickly, without incident. They got to Mukachevo, and from there to Hungary, ”the striker recalls these days.

Local bet

Two days before the start of the World Cup, the composition of the national team of Ukraine became known. The head coach of the team Vadim Shahrachuk predictably made his choice in favor of players from Ukrainian clubs. The legionnaires in the team are only the defender Ivan Litvinov (“Wrkhlabi Stadium”, the Czech Republic), as well as the attackers of Vitaly Lyalka (“Preshov”, Slovakia) and Mikhail Chikantsev (“Calix”, Sweden) – three players out of 22. However, the Ukrainian League Already earned a relatively high authority in Europe, and in the first half of the season 2021/2022, last fall, two of our clubs participated in the European competition – Donetsk Donbass in the Hockey League of the Champions and Kyiv Sokol in the Continental Cup. And there are plenty of chances of winning the tournament for the Ukrainian League players and climb the second division.

The Ukrainian team will hold the first match against a clear outsider of the World Cup – the Serbia team. And in the case of victory, Ukrainian hockey players, in fact, already guarantee survival, because yesterday the Serbs opened the tournament with a crushing defeat from Japan. Apparently, it is the Japanese and the owners of the ice – the Poles – will be the main applicants for raising in the classroom.

But the Ukrainian team conducted good training, playing a number of control matches, including with the Hungarian national team, which is above. Ukraine should definitely not fly out, but it is not worth demanding from the team in the current situation for access to division 1A.

Probably the main goal will be the fight against the Estonian national team for third place in the group.

The middle peasants of the third league

The Ukrainian team for hockey has been playing in the third division of world hockey for several years, and we have invariably one task – to increase in the classroom. The team, the main achievement of which for the entire time of the performances was participation in the winter games-2002 in Salt Lake City (the only Olympiad in which the national team took part), in addition to this, it was a regional one at the world's championship. Together with the Czech Republics, Americans and Canadians, Ukrainians have played since 2001, after that, for this, for nine tournaments (1992-2000), all lower divisions. Moreover, in the top division, Ukrainians even fell into the elite-a ten strongest, occupying ninth place. But the “Fairy Tale” at the World Cup-2007 in Russia, where Ukrainians took the last, 16th, place among 16 participants at a tournament in Moscow and Mytishchi. In the future, the team spoke in the second most important division for several years, but all attempts to return to the elite were in vain. Moreover, if earlier the team really fought for raising the class, then the World Cup – 2011 turned into a dull third place, in the middle of the tournament table of six participants.

And the next year the tragedy happened at all: at the World Cup in Ljubljana (Slovenia), the team first flew into the third most important division.Then there was the victorious 2013 World Cup in Kyiv and the return to the second division, but the “chatter” between the divisions lasted for six years, while at the 2017 World Cup. in Kyiv, the Ukrainian team did not take the last, sixth place and did not drop out to the third division, where it has been for four years.

Group changes

Ukrainian hockey players have not been seen in an elite company for a decade and a half. Moreover, they will not see it in this and next years. Even if our team now starts a white streak and a series of brilliant victories, the most we can count on is getting into the number of participants in the elite division of the World Cup in 2024. Unlike the International Volleyball Federation, which gave us Russia's place among the participants in the World Championship, the hockey federation followed the sports principle.

This year's tournaments in all divisions are noticeably different from previous years' tournaments. The reason for everything is the disqualification of the national teams of Russia and Belarus from official competitions under the auspices of the IIHF. Their places will be taken by the teams of France and Austria, who were supposed to play in division 1A. Both teams dropped out of the top division in 2019, but never played in the lower division, having been canceled for the past two years. As a result, the French team will take the place of the Russian team in Group A, the matches of which will be held in Helsinki. The Austrian team will go to Group B instead of the Belarusian team, whose tournament will be hosted by Tampere. By the way, it is Tampere that will become the main city of the upcoming World Cup. Group B matches, two quarter-finals, both semi-finals, a match for bronze medals, as well as the final match will be held here. The world championship matches in Tampere will be hosted by a new arena, currently named after the Nokia concern, with a capacity of 13,455 spectators for hockey matches.

As for the lower divisions, both in 1A and 1B there are now not six teams, but five. The place in the 1A division, where France and Austria were eliminated from the six participants, went to the Lithuanian team from 1B, and the potential four turned into the five. And in division 1B, all teams remained, except for the Lithuanian national team.