Photo: FHU
The Ukraine national ice hockey team delivered a strong performance on Thursday, May 7, in their fourth game at the IIHF World Championship Division IA, but ultimately lost to Kazakhstan in a shootout, 4:5.
Ukraine came back impressively after falling behind 1:3 during the game. The team, coached by Dmitro Khrystych, managed to level the score at 4:4 by the end of regulation time, forcing a shootout after a hard-fought contest against the more experienced opponent.
Game breakdown:
0:1 Logvyn (12:37), 1:1 Denyskin (20:11), 1:2 Liapunov (30:33), 1:3 Starchenko (32:30), 2:3 Merezhko (33:55, power play), 3:3 Peresunko (39:42), 4:3 Fadieiev (50:58), 4:4 Muratov (51:45).
Following the victory, Kazakhstan secured a return to the top division with 11 points, while Ukraine and France remain in the top three with 7 points each.
Ukraine will play its final match of the tournament on May 8 against Japan.
In earlier games, Ukraine lost to Poland (2:3) but defeated Lithuania (2:1) and France (3:2), keeping their promotion hopes alive. The top two teams in the standings will be promoted to the elite division, while the last-placed team will be relegated.
Last year, Ukraine narrowly missed promotion after a decisive final-round loss to Japan (2:3), failing to reach the top division for the first time since 2007.
