Ukraine defeated Lithuania and returned to the IA division after a seven-year break

The World Division I Group B tournament ended on Friday at the Twinsbet Arena in Vilnius, in the last match of which the Lithuanian national team 1:4 (0:1, 0:1, 1:2) lost to the Ukrainian national team and won silver medals.

With the victory and gold medals, the Ukrainian national team also won a ticket to play in the IA division championship next year.

The last time the Ukrainian national team competed in the IA division was in 2017, but then they did not win and were relegated to the IB division. In it in 2018 they finished fourth in 2019. – fifth, and in 2020 and 2021 the championships did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the championships that returned after the pandemic, Ukrainians began to collect medals – in 2022. won bronze, 2023 – silver, and in 2024 became winners even after a seven-year break – in 2025. – will play in the IA division.

Despite the fact that the Lithuanians were one of the most disciplined teams of the championship in the first four matches of the championship, in the first 11 minutes of this match, the Lithuanians even violated the rules three times. Even before this match, the Ukrainian team proved that they are able to perfectly realize the advantage of the majority, and during one of the majority Danil Tracht (9:19 min.) with a shot from a medium distance to the near corner of the goal, he disarmed the goalkeeper Mantas Armalis and put the Ukrainians ahead 1:0.

After the Lithuanian fouls ended, in the second half of the half, our team took the initiative in the attack and organized several extremely dangerous attacks, but they could not score the equalizing goal.

In the second half, the game became even and both teams had their chances. However, the first effective attack was created by the Ukrainians, who won the dispute at the Lithuanian goal, from the left wing, Ivan Sysaks made a great pass to the one in front of the goal. To D. Tracht (30:56 min.), who stuck his stick perfectly and directed the puck into the goal defended by M. Armali – 2:0.

In the second half of the third quarter, the Lithuanians stopped the fast attack of the Ukrainians and Edgar Protchenko earned 2 penalty minutes, which he took advantage of quite quickly. Andri Denyskinas (53:54 min.), who made a powerful shot with one touch after Pylyps Pangelov-Juldashev’s pass and scored the third goal of the Ukrainians – 3:0.

With 3 minutes left to play, the Ukrainian Vitalijs Andreikivas was penalized with 2 minutes of penalty, and the coaches of the Lithuanian national team took advantage of this and replaced the goalkeeper M. Armalis with the sixth player on the pitch. Soon, the Lithuanians won the dispute at the goal of the Ukrainian national team, Nerijus Ališauskas shot from the blue line, but his stick broke and the puck suddenly started grinding at the goal, until finally Eimantas Noreika (57:11 min., rez. translated by E.Krakauskas and N.Ališauskas ) scored the first Lithuanian goal – 1:3.

The Lithuanians continued to try to save themselves, they again replaced M. Armali with the sixth player on the court, but then Olexander Presunko took the puck and scored into an empty net (4:1) and ensured the victory of the Ukrainian national team.

In this match, the Lithuanian national team also lost to the Lithuanians in terms of shots on goal – 18 (6, 6, 6) against 25 (12, 7, 6).

He was recognized as the best player of the match in the Lithuanian national team Ugnius Čižaswhile D. Trachtas is the author of two goals in the Ukrainian national team.

He was chosen as the best player of the Lithuanian national team of the entire championship Paulius Gintautaswho scored 3 goals and 3 assists in five games.

The goalkeeper of the Lithuanian national team was recognized as the best goalkeeper of the entire championship Mantas Armaliswho had conceded just 1 goal in three meetings before this match.

The most productive player in this tournament was the Ukrainian O. Peresunko, who scored 5 goals and made 6 assists in five matches, but the leader of the Estonian national team was recognized as the best striker. Robert Roobawho scored 5 goals and 3 assists, with two of his goals coming in the final match against China, which saw the Estonians win the bronze medals.

In the first four games, Lithuania defeated Spain 3-0, beat Estonia 6-1, beat the Netherlands 3-2 and defeated China 3-0, while Ukraine conceded just 1 goal in all four games and crushed Estonia 8-0, 4-0 defeated the Netherlands, did not spare China 9-0 and defeated Spain 6-1.

Before this tournament, the national teams of Lithuania and Ukraine also played a friendly match in Elektrėnai, where the Lithuanians had to admit the superiority of their opponents with the result 2:5. True, although the difference in the final result is 3 goals, but even 2 goals were missed in the match without a goalkeeper into an empty net.

Although more than 10 years ago, the Lithuanians could not resist the Ukrainian national team, because in 2010 the Lithuanians lost to their opponents with the result 5:12, in 2011 – 1:5, and in 2013 – 0:7, but later the scales turned to the other side and in 2016. Lithuanians celebrated a 2:1 victory, and in 2018 won 5-4 after extra time. This was the last meeting of these countries in the World Cups until now.

The ability of the Ukrainians is best reflected in the Olympic selection held in February, during which they defeated all their opponents, including the Poles playing in the elite division, and reached the final stage of the selection. No other Division IB team was able to achieve such a feat in Olympic selection.

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 in 2024. He won silver medals in the IB division.

in 2015 In the IB division, Lithuania will again compete with Estonia, China and Spain, Croatia will come from the IIA division, and Korea or Japan will probably fall from the IA division, but this will become clear only after the 2024 season, which ends on Saturday. of the Division IA tournament.

Composition of the Lithuanian national team:

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

Forwards: Tadas Kumeliauskas, Povilas Verenis (injury).

Goalkeepers: Mantas Armalis, Elvin Karla, Faustas Nausėda.

Score board

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The course of the match