The balanced level of competition among the six teams present at the 2025 IIHF World Championship Division I Group A in Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania became apparent with three tight, low-scoring games on the second day of action. All three games were decided by one goal and two in extra time.
The Day 2 results were:Ukraine over Italy 3-2 in a shootout,
Poland over Japan 2-1, and
Great Britain over Romania 2-1 in overtime.
Italy 2 – Ukraine 3 [SO] (0-1, 1-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1)
The Ukrainians have now taken Great Britain and Italy to shootouts on back-to-back days and claimed three out of six points against the top two ranked teams in this tournament but, if anything, they’re disappointed not to have more.
“Of course we’re happy to get a win today but a little disappointed about yesterday,” said winger Andri Denyskin, who had a goal and an assist for Ukraine in the game. “Our coaches prepared us really well so we were ready for the tournament, physically and mentally. We’re a hard team to play against.”
Denyskin’s goal put the Ukrainians up 1-0 after one period and they thought they’d gone up 2-0 on the power play early in the second, but that was called back for goaltender interference.
The resulting power play for a failed challenge and later a bench minor for too many players on the ice put the Ukrainians back on their heels for a good portion of the second period. Bohdan Diachenko and the Ukrainian penalty-killers kept the Italian attack at bay for a while, but the finally broke through when Dustin James Gazely perfectly set up a one-timer that Gregory di Tomaso wired under the crossbar at 32:21.
Ukraine regained the lead late in the second period when, from below the goal line, Viktor Zakharov cleverly banked the puck off a sprawled Davide Fadani and in. Luca Zanetta tied it for Italy with 15:25 remaining in reguation time, and that was all for the scoring.
“We have to take advantage of the man advantage and we didn’t today,” said Zanetta. “At the same time, we showed a lot of character coming back twice. That’s not easy, especially at this level. We had some more chances in overtime, it just wasn’t enough, but our heads now are focused towards the next game.”Italy outshot Ukraine 37-18 through 65 minutes of hockey, including 6-0 in overtime, but Diachenko was brilliant. The Ukrainian keeper also stopped all five Italian shooters in the shootout, while Olexander Peresunko scored on Ukraine’s third attempt to secure the extra point.
Poland 2 – Japan 1 (2-0, 0-0, 0-1)
In Monday’s middle game, Poland won its second straight and Japan lost its second straight. Poland outshot Japan 31-28, with the Japanese not scoring until their very last shot.
“We had a lot of chances but we just couldn’t execute,” said Japanese forward Yu Sato. “That’s something we have to do better if we want to win. Now we have some time to prepare for the next game and hopefully, that’s something we can improve.”
“They’re a fast, structured team,” said Polish forward Krzysztof Macias. “They gave us some hard moments today but we managed to battle through that with our structure and our defensive game, and our goalie (Tomas Fucik) helped a lot also.”
Poland scored both of its goals in the first period. Just shy of the seven-minute mark, defenceman Olaf Bizacki connected on a one-timer from the point that beat everybody through a crowd. Then in the last minute of the period, Dominik Pas carried the puck into the Japanese zone and feathered a cross-ice pass to Patryk Krezolek, who beat a sliding Issa Otsuka upstairs.
“We’ve had two good starts so far and that’s something we’ve had to work on because in pre-tournament games we had terrible starts,” said Macias.
The Poles tried to add to their lead in the second period, outshooting Japan 15-6, but Otsuka stood tall. At the other end, Fucik didn’t have as much work but did have to stop a couple of Japanese breakaways.
Japan broke Fucik’s shutout with just six seconds remaining. On the power play, the Polish goalie stopped the original shot from Kenta Takagi but Yuto Osawa was right on the doorstep to put in the rebound. However, that didn’t leave enough time to try for another.
“I was cheering for ‘Tomek’ to get a shutout but we didn’t give any points up, so that’s the most important thing,” said Macias. I don’t think anybody on our team cares about those individual accolades. We came here to get a promotion and we’re doing everything we can to do that.”
Great Britain 2 – Romania 1 [OT] (1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0)
Cade Neilson’s goal on a great second effort 36 seconds into overtime gave Great Britain its second straight win, although they’ve taken only four of six possible points so far. The defeat gives host Romania its first point of the tournament.
“Cade was able to get the puck and make a power move to the net and get his own rebound,” said British forward Brett Perlini. “That’s what we try to preach – get to that net and that’s how we got two goals tonight.”
It took just 31 seconds from the opening faceoff for GB to net the game’s first goal when, on a delayed penalty, Josh Waller swept the puck into a wide-open net. Romania tied the score just shy of the first period’s midpoint when Balasz Gadjo converted a rebound after Jackson Whistle stopped the initial shot from Szilard Rokaly.
“The coaches changed the lines a bit,” said Rokaly. “They weren’t good enough against Poland so we tried to create something better on offence and I think it was way better than yesterday. You’re never happy to lose but GB is way better than us and we tried our best and we hope that one point will help us in the future.”
In the third period, both teams had chances as the Romanian crowd, enhanced by a healthy contingent of travelling British fans, got more energized. Midway through the final frame, Whistle robbed Tamas Reszegh with a glove save from point-blank range. Moments later, Ben Lake got a breakaway and just failed to convert on a forehand deke. But despite a couple of overlapping Romanian penalties giving GB a 5-on-3 for 29 seconds, the third period decided nothing.
“We’ve gotta get a more consisent 60 minutes but it’s promising that we’re ending games well,” said Perlini. “The third period’s been our best, so that’s been good.”After two games each, Poland is the tournament’s only perfect team with six points and Japan is the only team still searching for its first point. After a day off, all six teams are back in action on Wednesday.
Wednesday's schedule (all times EET):
- Great Britain vs Japan, 12:30
- Poland vs Italy, 16:00
- Ukraine vs Romania, 19:30