In addition to the gold medals awarded at the Twinsbet Arena in Vilnius, Ukraine also received an invitation to the stronger Group A, where they will play next year.
Lithuanians had to settle for consolation silver medals.
Both teams were undefeated before Friday’s battle, with the Ukrainians smashing the Estonians 8-0, the Chinese 9-0, Spain 6-1 and the Netherlands 4-0.
In turn, the Lithuanians managed to beat the Estonians 6:1, beat the Spanish and Chinese 3:0, and not so well defeated the Dutch 3:2.
On Friday, the first half began with the attacks of the Ukrainian team, which with a powerful strike in the 9th minute. Daniil Tracht’s goal was the crowning achievement. After him, our team seemed to take the initiative, but the puck did not go into the Ukrainian goal.
In the 30th minute of the second half the same D. Tracht stuck his stick and the puck, having changed its flight trajectory, again entered the goal defended by Mantos Armali – the result was already 2:0.
In the third quarter, the Lithuanians tried to reduce the difference for a while, but in the end, our team’s rivals excelled again. With a strong blow 53 min. Andrijus Denyskinas made the result 3:0.
3 minutes left to play. in the end, the Lithuanians used their quantitative advantage and the difference was reduced by Eimantas Noreika. But not for long.
The coaching staff decided to go va-bank and immediately replaced the goalkeeper with the sixth player, but Ukraine scored the last goal of the tournament a dozen seconds later – in the 58th minute. Oleksander Peresunko excelled.
“We scored too late. We remain in this group for one more season. Maybe I’m a little satisfied with this result, but it’s sad.
But next year we will do everything to get into a higher division. It doesn’t matter where the competition will be held, but we will only aim for gold”, explained Nerijus Ališauskas after the match.
“For a country like Lithuania, this is still a very good result. Because of that moment when we changed the goalkeeper, we basically thought we had to hang on to the opportunity.
Maybe a goal would have helped to change the situation. I say, we thought about the chance,” explained the Canadian Ron Pasco, the coach of the Lithuanian national team.
“That’s how I value that championship – the goal was different. I wanted to finish the championship on another, higher note, but it didn’t happen, – explained 33-year-old Tadas Kumeliauskas after the award ceremony, saying goodbye to the national team. “It’s a shame that it happened.”
– Did you lose to a stronger team?
– Yes. But we could play with them. And we had chances to score goals. It was not that the Ukrainians dominated. In the first half, we had penalty minutes, they converted one, and after that it was difficult to get back into the match.
– You were one of the most disciplined teams in the tournament, but you got three fouls in the first half. Why did this happen?
– I would like to comment, but I will not say anything.
– Were there basically any chances to go to Ukraine?
– Yes, there were chances. We talked in the dressing room before the second half that we need a quick goal and everything will change. But it could not be done. At the end of the third quarter, we scored, then we changed the goalkeeper, we took a risk, but it didn’t work out.
– Can Ukraine get stuck in a higher group?
– Hard to say. The level of play there is high, but the teams and their compositions are different. As far as I could see, there is a good level.
– What matches will you remember as the best in your career in the national team?
– When we won the bronze in the higher division and, of course, the 2018 championship in Kaunas and the victorious golden match.
– When could Lithuania return to Group A of Division I?
– You can see that we were able to do it today. But it didn’t work.
– Why did you decide to withdraw from the national team?
– I haven’t played professional ice hockey for some time. It is not possible to combine work and sports. For the past month, I have only stayed at home. It is too difficult not to see family and children.
