Ukraine U18 started the World Junior Hockey Championship with a strong victory

The Ukrainian U18 national hockey team started the World Youth Championship with a victory. In the first round match, the “blue and yellow” defeated the Slovenian team.

Ukraine will compete in Division IA of the World Youth Championship for the fourth year in a row. The “blue and yellow” team was close to returning to the elite division in the past two World Championships, for example, last year the Ukrainians lost only one match to the Danish team, which eventually won the group.

Suspilne Sport is the official broadcaster of Ukraine U18 matches at the IIHF World Championship. Watch live broadcasts of Ukraine's games on the Suspilne Sport platforms and local Suspilne channels.

In this year's World Cup, the Ukrainian U18 team will face Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Poland, Slovenia and Hungary. The results of five matches will determine one group winner, who will play in the elite division next season.

How was the match?

• In the middle of the first period, the Slovenian national team managed to score the majority of the points and open the scoring in the match thanks to a goal by Benjamin Topalovic.
• However, in the 14th minute, striker Platon Isayev restored parity in the match, and in the 18th minute, Alexey Tolkunov put the Ukrainian national team ahead.
• In the second period, the Slovenian national team was able to equalize the score in the match. However, in the middle of the third period, the “blue and yellow” realized the majority of the shots on the court: Volodymyr Naumenko scored the puck into the Slovenian goal after a pass from Oleg Hlynsky.
• A few seconds before the final siren, Ukrainian hockey players scored the fourth goal against the Slovenian national team and recorded the final score – 4:2.

2026 Junior World Cup. Division IA. First round

Slovenia — Ukraine 2:4 (1:2, 1:0, 0:2)

Thanks to the victory over Slovenia, the Ukrainian national team occupies second place in the standings, second only to Kazakhstan in goal difference.

2026 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship. Division IA: standings

1. Kazakhstan — 3 points, 1 match (goal difference 5:2)
2. Ukraine — 3 points, 1 match (4:2)
3. Switzerland — 0 points, 0 matches (0:0)
4. Poland — 0 points, 0 matches (0:0)
5. Slovenia — 0 points, 1 match (2:4)
6. Hungary — 0 points, 1 match (2:5)