World Hockey Division IB in Vilnius: Lithuania – Estonia (LIVE)

The World Division I Group B tournament continues on Sunday at the Twinsbet Arena in Vilnius, where the Lithuanian national team seeks to enter a higher division and overtake the national teams of the Netherlands, China, Estonia, Spain and Ukraine.

In the second match of the championship, the Lithuanians led by Ron Pasco from 4:00 p.m. will face the Estonian national team. You will be able to follow the progress of the match “Sportas.lt” on the portal.

On the first day of the championship, the Lithuanians managed 3:0 against Spain, the debutant of the IB division, while Estonia lost 0:8 to one of the favorites of the group, Ukrainian ice hockey players.

Monday will be a free day in the championship, and Tuesday from 19:30. Lithuanians will fight against the Netherlands.

The Estonian team is considered almost every year as the team that should step up and compete for medals in this division. However, throughout their history, they have won medals in this division only once – in 2018. in Kaunas. Even then, Estonians hoped that the next generation would allow them to become contenders for a higher division, but they were unable to do so. Even in the championship at home, they remained outside the medal limit. The Estonian national team comes to this championship with the hope that their youth have matured to help the leaders, and the representative team of the country, which played in the Baltic championships, allowed the players who stayed at home to raise their skills.

The last time the men’s ice hockey championship was held in Lithuania was in 2018. In Kaunas, in the “Žalgiris” arena, and then Mindaugas Kieras, the current assistant to the head coach of the Lithuanian national team, played his 20th World Championship in a row and together with the entire Lithuanian national team won gold medals and moved up to the IA division. However, already the next year, the Lithuanians won only one victory in the higher division and had to return to the IB division. Finally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the championships did not take place for two years, and in 2022 due to Russia starting a war in Ukraine, the IIHF excluded Belarus and Russia from the World Championship, so Lithuania got a place again in Division IA, where the Lithuanians won bronze medals in Slovenia. in 2023 The Lithuanian national team has not won a single victory in this division and is now in Vilnius aiming to return to a higher level.

Composition of the Lithuanian national team:

Defenders: Nerijus Ališauskas, Domantas Čypas, Edgaras Protčenko, Tomaš Krukovski, Kostas Gusevs, Paulius Rumševičius, Artur Seniut.

Strikers: Tadas Kumeliauskas, Povilas Verenis, Aivaras Bendžius, Paulius Gintautas, Ugnius Čižas, Ilja Četvertakas, Emilijus Krakauskas, Markas Kaleinikovas, Laisvydas Kudrevičius, Martynas Grinius, Eimantas Noreika, Dovydas Laimutis, Marijus Dumčius.

Goalkeepers: Mantas Armalis, Elvin Karla, Faustas Nausėda.

Schedule:

Score board