World Cup 2025 with Hockey U-18: The national team of Ukraine starts in the IA Division in Hungary | Hockey

On Sunday, April 20, the World Hockey Championships among Junior Teams (U-18) in the IA Division Starts in Hungarian Sefeherwarw.

It is the second in force of the Division after the elite, where The national team of Ukraine For the third year in a row, he will fight for a ticket to the World Cup. In order to be in the same company with the teams of Canada, the USA, Sweden and the Czech Republic, Alexander Bobkin’s team needs to win his tournament.

Only victory is needed

According to the regulations, the IA Division is attended by six teams-teams that take 11-16 places in the world rating, since the elite division is the 10 strongest. Unlike the elite, this division only holds a circular tournament without a playoff: each of the six teams plays with all rivals, a total of five rounds. The winner increases in the classroom, and the team that has taken the last place goes to the third in force – the IB division.

The rivals of the national team of Ukraine at the World Cup 2025 will be the teams of Austria, Hungary, Denmark, as well as the Kazakhstan national team, which left the elite division, and Slovenia, which rose from the third division.

The most successful team

The Ukrainian team of 18-year-old hockey players is the most successful in the country. Thus, the U-20 team in January 2025 won the World Cup in the third by Ib Division and returned to the second IA, where it will play next season 2025/26. And the « adult » national team will start the fight in the second most likely tournament after 8 years of « decline » in the third division. At the same time, the 18-year-old three consecutive years will perform in IA.

Moreover, if the 2023 team barely abstained in the second division, then in 2024 she had seriously struggled for the place in the elite, taking the final 2nd place in the standings. Ukrainians won four matches in the main time and only in the German national team gave way to Overtime, 1: 2. As a result, our and German team divided only one point – 13 against 14.

In the current World Cup 2025, the German team will be replaced by the Kazakhstan national team, which has left the elite, and, by logic, this team should become the main rival of Ukrainians in the fight for getting into the Division of the strongest. After all, the teams of Austria, Hungary and Denmark Ukrainians were confidently beat last season, and the Slovenes only rose from the third division. But … the thing is that the U-18 specific tournament. Due to age restrictions, the composition of players changes significantly every year. And it is difficult to predict something.

However, the Ukrainian team will rather apply for raising in the classroom than to fight for survival in the current league. More than half of the team players still have last year’s experience in the tournament. And in Hungary, « blue and yellow » went in the status of one of the favorites of the planetary championship.

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Bip test and expectations before the World Cup

The head coach of the national team of Ukraine Oleksandr Bobkin was satisfied with the preparation of the team for the current World Cup.

« First of all, the guys were tasked with coming physically prepared, however, as usual. So this year we announced that after arrival, players would take a bip test (based on shuttle run) and should show the result between 12.5 and 13.5 seconds. This is considered an average level of preparation.

All the boys have invested at this time, and there are those who have broken the record that has been held since the summer preparation of the Odessa storm. Danilo Skorokhod and Artem Ratushnyak showed very high results. From what I remember, Artem generally set a record – 15.3 seconds,  » – said the coach in a comment to the Hockey Federation of Ukraine.

Speaking of hockey players, the trainer emphasized:

« A friendly game with the Hungarians turned out to be a good one, the boys were taught. It was a little unusual, but also to the Hungarians, because they played on a platform with non -standard sizes. The guys playing in Ukraine were used to such arenas, but most of our team from Europe, where they play on standard ice.

There was a viscous, nervous match. Both teams did not exhibit their optimal warehouses. Let’s say so, we gave way, and we accepted the result. The most important thing we received the information is to consider it, and then we were able to decide with whom we will go with whom we will say goodbye to the coaching staff. « 

The coaching staff of the national team had to part with three players before the final stage of preparation for the World Cup, but in no way does the players « write off ». The same Klim Luchkin is a very promising player, both in the youth and in the youth team he will still show himself. This is one of those players who have a good future in domestic national teams if it continues to treat hockey.

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As for Alexander Petukhov, according to the coach, it was a difficult solution, because four players played no better than him. Despite this, the coaching staff decided to rely on those who are knew better. After all, Vladimir Karpachev is a very talented player, the best in the Falcon-2007, but Bobkin did not understand the hockey player, his views on the game.

Most of Europe, two – from North America

Of the 22 players of the final composition of the national team of Ukraine, only the goalkeeper Nikita Oleksiyenko and the striker Ilya Shinkinsky represent North America, the US and Canada teams, respectively. Two more – Danilo Skorokhod and Savva Novikov – are part of the Odessa « storm » and the other 18 players from European clubs.

At the same time, players under 18, of course, can leave Ukraine freely without even having any proposals from foreign clubs. But they always come to the national team at the first call. It is worth noting that the level of patriotism among young hockey players is at a very high level.

The composition of the national team of Ukraine

Goalkeepers: Mikhail Naboychenko (Forus/Sandnes U20, Norway), Nikita Oleksienko (Pittsburgh Stars U18 AAA, USA), Elijah Bobrov (Duna ach18, Hungary)

Defenders: Sukhitsky (Aosta, Italy), Mykola Kosarev (Stavanger Oiles, Norway), Semen Stasyuk (Verva Litvinov, Czech Republic), Gleb Petrov (Plzeň U20, Czech Republic), Savva Novikov (Storm, Ukraine), Yegor Ostapenko ( (Forus/Sandnes U20, Norway).

Attackers: Mykhailo Kuaev, Matthew Shevtsov (all – forus/Sandnes U20, Norway), Andriy Zaminin (HPK U20, Finland), Danilo Skorokhod (Storm, Ukraine), Miroslav Spasykin, Artem Ratushnyak (Both – DUKLA JIHLA JIHLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA JIKLA. . Canadiens, Canada).

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Calendar of the national team of Ukraine

The starting match of our national team at the tournament, Ukraine – Hungary, will begin on Sunday, April 20, at 5:00 pm Kyiv time.

• April 20 | 17:00 | Hungary – Ukraine

• April 21 13:30 | Ukraine – Denmark

• April 23 | 13:30 | Ukraine – Austria

• April 24 | 13:30 | Ukraine – Slovenia

• April 26 | 20:30 | Kazakhstan – Ukraine

Where to look

The live broadcast of the World Cup matches with the participation of the national team of Ukraine will be available on the TV channel « Public Sport » and on Digital platform of public. In full volume tournament can be seen on the site IIHF.TV.