The tribute to the legends of Lithuanian ice hockey was crowned with one of the fastest goals in the IB division in recent times and the victory of the Lithuanians against the Estonians was assured.

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 even 6:1 (3:1, 1:0, 2:0) crushed the Estonian national team and won the second victory in a row.

Before the meeting, there was also a tribute to the legends of Lithuanian ice hockey – the symbolic shirt was presented to the player who played 90 games for the national team in the world championships To Artūrs Katuliswho represented the national team in 88 matches Egidius Baubawho played 85 matches Roland Aliukonishaving played 87 matches to Šarūns Kuliešiswho has 71 matches in his account Darius Pliskauskas, to the first president of the “Hockey Lietuva” association Petr Nausėda and the former head of the national team for the German coach to Bernd Haake (40 matches).

The Lithuanians started the match fantastically: after just 38 seconds Nerijus Ališauskas made a shot from the blue line, but the puck hit the sideboard, and there Paulius Gintautas the first rushed to the puck, made a pass to the one in front of the goal To Mark Kaleinikov (00:38 min.), which very quickly put the Lithuanians ahead – 1:0.

This goal was the fastest in Division I Group B since 2018. of the tournament in Kaunas, when also 38 sec. Estonian ice hockey legend Robert Rooba scored a goal from the start of the match against Ukraine.

Soon, the Estonians broke the rules and the Lithuanians played in the majority for 2 minutes, but failed to score.

After 5 minutes of play, Artur Seniut sat on the bench of the penalized players. After just 30 seconds, goalkeeper Mantas Armalis failed to properly capture the puck, and Estonia To Morten Arantez Jurgens (6:03 min.) managed to scratch it and equalize the result

The second goal fell into the Estonian goal just after a minute and a half, when Martynas Grinius passed the puck To Eimantas Noreikahe made a great pass to the one in goal Paul Gintautas (7:37 min.) and he scored his second goal of this championship – 2:1.

The Lithuanians scored the third goal already in the second half of the quarter, when Tadas Kumeliauskas intercepted the puck on the opponent’s side of the field, made a pass to the one in front of the goal To Povilas Verenis (13:02) and he disarmed the opponent’s goalkeeper with a weak but accurate shot – 3:0.

At the beginning of the second half, N.Ališauskas earned a 2-minute penalty, and L.Kudrevičius, who was fighting in the minority, was roughly stopped by Robert Rooba, one of the leaders of the Estonian national team, after which the Lithuanian’s nose bled and he needed medical help. However, the Estonians could not use the quantitative advantage and the teams again played with equal compositions.

In the first half of the second half, the Estonians violated the rules twice in a row, but the Lithuanians failed to convert into a goal in most of the 4 minutes of the game.

In the second half of the half, when the Lithuanians were playing in the majority, N.Ališauskas made a mistake in his zone, the puck slipped off his stick and the player did not notice it, while the Estonian rushed to a quick attack, but being alone in front of the goalkeeper, he was unable to disarm Mantas Armali.

As the last seconds of most of the time ticked, the Lithuanians rushed to a quick attack: Dovydas Laimutis perfectly blocked the view of the Estonian goalkeeper, and M. Kaleinikov (35:18, directed by Emilijus Krakauskas, D.Laimutis) scored his second and the fourth goal of the Lithuanian national team in this match with a strong shot – 4:1.

The third quarter again started well for the Lithuanians: T. Kumeliauskas took the puck in the Estonian zone, passed it Ilya Chetvertakui (40:49 min.), who disarmed the opponent’s goalkeeper with a shot from a medium distance and scored the fifth goal of the Lithuanian national team – 5:1.

At the end of the meeting Mr. Verenis (55:45 min., rez. trans. Ugnius Čižas and Artur Seniut) ran into a quick attack and although there was still one of the defenders in front of him, he did not disturb the Lithuanian too much and P. Verenis scored his second goal in this meeting – 6:1 .

M. Kaleinikovas, who scored two goals, was recognized as the best player of the Lithuanian national team in this match.

In this match, the Lithuanians made 33 (11/8/14) shots on goal, and the Estonians – 17 (8/7/2).

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.

We remind you that the Lithuanians also played a friendly match with the Estonian national team, in which they celebrated a 3:1 victory. However, the statistics of recent years were unfavorable for Lithuanians – from 2019 Lithuanians played 9 times with Estonians outside of the world championships and celebrated only 3 victories. The last time Lithuanians lost to Estonians was in 2023. in November, when Estonians lost 2:5 at the “Baltic Challenge Cup” tournament held in Poland, but in that tournament the Lithuanian national team did not play the most capable team and many key players were not in the team.

In the World Championships, Lithuanians won 8 victories in 14 meetings with Estonia, and they last played in 2018. In the championship held in Kaunas, when the Lithuanians won with the result 4:1.

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

The course of the match: