For the first time in two decades: Ukrainian national team will play in elite division at 2027 Ice Hockey World Championship

The Ukrainian men's national ice hockey team has advanced to the elite division of the Ice Hockey World Championship, taking 2nd place in Group A of Division I.

This was reported by the official portal of the Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine.

This became possible after a draw between Poland and Lithuania (1:1) in regular time of the last round match. As a result, the Lithuanians also snatched a victory in overtime, so the Poles, despite the status of favorites in the match, could not catch up with the Ukrainian team in the standings.

At this year's World Cup, the wards of coach Dmytro Khrystych lost to Poland (2:3) in the opening round, but then defeated Lithuania (2:1) and France (3:2), lost to Kazakhstan (4:5) on penalties and defeated Japan (3:1).

It should be noted that the last time Ukraine played in the elite division of the World Championship was in 2007. Then the "blue and yellow" took the last 16th place in the planetary championship in russia.

We should add that in total, Ukraine spent nine seasons at the highest level of the World Hockey Championship. The best result of our team was 9th place at the 2002 World Championship.

The 2027 World Championship in the top division will be hosted by the German cities of Düsseldorf and Mannheim. The tournament will last from May 14 to 30.