Sport

Ukraine has a bad start at the World Cup of Hockey: the next match is today

The Ukrainian men’s national ice hockey team played its first match at the World Championship in Division 1A, the second strongest division of the World Championship. Our team met the Great Britain team, which left the elite division last year. The match turned into a real hockey swing with an unpredictable ending, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.

In the first period, Ukrainian hockey players had some advantage, but failed to realize it. Instead, the British took advantage of their moment – after Albert’s feed from the blue line, Waller successfully placed his stick on the heel and opened the scoring. It was only the fourth shot by the British in the match.

At the beginning of the second period, the scenario repeated itself. Similarly, Perlini hit the goal of 18-year-old Ukrainian debutant Levshyn, doubling his team’s lead. The score was 0-2 not in favor of Ukraine.

However, the Ukrainians demonstrated their character and began to win back. In the 26th minute, Deniskin made a brilliant split pass to Zakharov, who found himself one-on-one with British goalkeeper Bowns and confidently beat him.

Subsequently, our team gained a numerical advantage and took advantage of it. After two minutes of active play on the power play, the Ukrainians created a three-on-two attack, which ended with a precise shot by Daniel Tracht after a pass from Fadeev. The score was 2-2.

In the third period, the Ukrainians continued to put pressure and took the lead. Boroday showed individual skill, winning the fight at the boards and hitting the opponent’s goal with a precise shot over the goalkeeper’s pad. Ukraine took a 3-2 lead.

Later, the British were able to put the puck into the Ukrainian goal, but the goal was canceled after a video review, as the puck was scored with a skate, which is prohibited by the rules. However, later O’Connor managed an incredible shot from a very sharp angle to level the score at 3-3.

The main time and overtime did not reveal a winner, so the fate of the match was decided in a series of shootouts. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian hockey players failed to hit goalkeeper Bowns even once, while the British made two attempts.

As a result, Great Britain won the shootout and gained two points in the standings, while Ukraine gained one point.

Match statistics

World Championship, Division 1, Group A

Sepsi Arena, Sfintu-Gheorghe, Romania

Ukraine – Great Britain 3: 4 B (0: 1, 2: 1, 1: 1, 0: 0, 0: 1)

Goals: 0:1 – Waller (Albert), 11:08. 0:2 – Perlini (O’Connor, Brown), 21:30. 1:2 – Zakharov (Denisin), 25:45. 2: 2 – Tracht (Fadeev, Peresunko), 32:01. 3:2 – Boroday (Kupriyanov, Deniskin), 49:16. 3:3 – O’Connor (Shudra, Lakhovich), 52:42. 3:4 – Lake, winning bullet.

Ukraine: Levshin (Dyachenko); Sysak – Merezhko, Deniskin – Zakharov – Boroday; Grebenik – Pangelov-Yuldashev, Trakht – Fadeev – Peresunko; Ratushny – Varava, Lyalka – Kupriyanov – Krivoshapkin; Dakhnovsky, Vorona – Yanishevsky – Sadovikov, Korenchuk.

Great Britain: Bowns (Wisl); Richardson – Geiseldine, Batteridge – Dowd – Waller; Albert – Clements, Perlini – Neilson – Brown; Tatlow – O’Connor, Neilson – Lake – Lachowicz; Butch, Duggan – Davis – Shudra.

Shots: 30:26 (11:7, 6:10, 8:7, 5:1, 0:1)

Penalties: 2:6 (0:2, 2:4, 0:0, 0:0)

Standings

In other matches of Group A, in which Ukraine is playing, Poland defeated Romania 4-1, and Italy defeated Japan with the same score.

Thus, after the first round, Ukraine ranks fourth in the group. The first two teams from the group will qualify for the playoffs.

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Match schedule

The next match of the Ukrainian national team will be played against Italy today, April 28, at 12:30 Kyiv time. After that, our team will play on April 30, as well as on May 1 and 3.

What bookmakers say

In the next match against Italy, Ukraine is not considered a favorite: they give odds of 1.47 for Italy’s victory, 5.20 for a draw, and 5.50 for Ukraine’s victory.

Where to watch

Live broadcasts of all matches of the World Ice Hockey Championship in Division 1A can be watched on the website, TV channel and YouTube channel of Suspilne Sport.