Dmitry Khristich, the coach of the Ukraine national hockey team, made a 2025 prediction for the team. The main event was the World Championship in Division 1A, where the team only lost their chance to reach the elite league in the last match.

“I think the year has been positive. We won most of our matches. I also rate our performance in the World Championship positively. Many people probably wanted us to get into the elite league immediately, but I believe that we need to gain experience and confidence at this level. You have to believe in yourself and build on your experience by getting positive results against D1A teams and promotion teams that constantly jump from league to league.”

“We need to learn to play the full 60 minutes, to play against any opponent, to be tactically flexible… All these and many other nuances still need to be worked out,” Khristic said.

A leaders’ match took place as part of the Ukrainian Hockey Championship – the current champion Kremenchuk hosted Sokol as part of the festive meeting at Christmas.

The match ended with Kremenchuk scoring 4:1, and the match was abandoned twice due to air raids.

At the same time, the home team lost 0:1, but they scored two goals on the power play in the second period and eventually hit an empty net. Vitaly Lyalka scored a double goal.

While Sokol finishes 2025 as the leader, Kremenchuk is one point behind and has a game in hand.

Ukrainian Hockey Championship

Kremenchuk – Sokol 4:1 (0:1, 2:0, 2:0)

Discs: 02:48 Mazur (Timchenko, Cherdak) – 0:1, 27:09 Lyalka (Matusevich, Krivoshapkin – large) – 1:1, 28:40 Andryushchenko (Krivenko – large) – 2:1, 59:03 Lyalka – 3:1, 59:10 Poperzhay (Gevorgyan) – 4:1

Goalkeepers: Zakharchenko – Petrov (Makarenko)

The Ukrainian hockey championship match took place between Storm and Odeshchina. The meeting ended with a score of 8:3 in Storm’s favor.

It should also be said that the team, which had major problems in its squad and regularly played with 12-13 hockey players, received important reinforcements from Dnepr. Five new artists appeared in the application of Odessa residents and brought immediate results.

Newcomers Laktionov, Chupryna and Deliy scored two points each.

The teams have 17 points and share 3-4 places.

Ukrainian Hockey Championship

Storm – Odeshchina 8:3 (2:0, 3:2, 3:1)

Discs: 11:28 Chuprina (Laktionov, Stotsky) – 1:0, 15:10 Mosyuk (Trushchenko, Poimanov) – 2:0, 24:06 Ponomarev (Ratushny) – 3:0, 24:40 Khanin – 3:1, 25:12 Dvornik (Bechtold) – 3:2, 31:58 Ruzhitsky (Laktionov) – 4:2, 34:05 Laktionov (Deliy, Chuprina) – 5:2, 42:19 Deliy (Derkach, Chuprina) – 6:2, 44:22 Reyuka (Poimanov, Ratushny) – 7:2, 52:30 Tailor (Kutsevich) – 8:2, 57:40 Hear -8:3