And waiting for Stanley Cup results: Ukraine’s national hockey team on the eve of the 2001 World Championship

Ukraine’s ice hockey national team has begun its final stage of preparation for play in the elite group A at the world championship starting on April 28 on the ice fields of Germany. Chief coach Anatoly Bohdanov invited for a training session almost thirty players most of whom play outside Ukraine for clubs in Russia, Europe, and North America.

On April 13-14, the national team of Ukraine played two check matches at the Kyiv Trade Union Ice Palace against Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo, which ranked tenth in the last Russian Superleague championship. Having lost the first game 1:3, the Ukrainians retaliated 1:0 in the second. The main purpose of these encounters was to sift through and size up candidates for this country’s main team. It is thus a little early to draw any conclusions about the degree of the players’ preparedness, the more so that the first match did not show a number of leading players whom the coaches allowed to rest and lick their wounds after an exhausting series of playoffs for the Russian championship.

Speaking of the impression made by the national team candidates, the two matches prominently featured the reliable defenders Oleksandr Savytsky and Artem Ostroushko along with the fast and goal-hungry forwards Oleksandr Matviychuk and Borys Protsenko. A meaningful combination game was demonstrated by the forward trio of Vadym Shakhraichuk, Vitaly Lytvynenko, and Valentyn Oletsky. One can think only that it is these hockey players who will constitute the backbone of our national team in the world championship struggle.

There should also be no problems with goalies: here there are four quite reliable sentinels at the coaches’ disposal, including Ihor Karpenko, champion of Russia when he played for Magnitogorsk Metallurg.

Our national team can also be reinforced by four or five fellows now playing for North American hockey league clubs. But any of the NHL’s Ukrainian troika — Dmytro Khrystych, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Oleksiy Ponikarovsky — will be able to play in the world championship only if their clubs lose their Stanley Cup first round.

Ukraine’s national team will continue training for the world championship in Germany and Austria, where they will also play two check matches against those countries’ national teams. It is after these games that the coaches will finally select the 23 players to represent Ukraine in the world championship competition.