13 November, 2012 - 00:00
The Ukrainian national team beat the Estonians (3:1), getting into the C slot of the world championships. As champion, they defeated the Danes (4:2), scoring the last goal in an empty gate just as the adversary was trying (at 2:3) to save the situation, replacing the goalie with a sixth player. In Ljubljana and Jesenice, Ukrainian hockey players led by Anatoly Bohdanov, Oleksandr Seukand, and Vasyl Fadeyev scored 12 out of 12 attempts. Yuri Shundrov was named the tournament’s best goalie. Vadym Shakhraichuk got an MVP. We had waited too long in the C slot breathing down the necks of our Latvian and Kazakh rivals, who played no better but simply found more money for training. Even here Ukraine seemed finally to have seen the light, collecting its best League players this spring. One can only hope that our sports moguls and the attendant numerous bureaucrats will remember the technique when preparing for the November-October meets, vying for the A slot, meaning measuring hockey sticks with the Slovenia runner-up.
Rubric:






