Ukraine won the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division I Group B on home ice in Kyiv and will for the first time since 2007 be among the top-16 ice hockey nations in an IIHF category next year.

Coming in as the fifth-seeded team, the Ukrainians were not among the natural favourites despite home-ice advantage in the Palace of Sports. But this time the juniors in yellow-and-blue left behind nations usually placed ahead of them and completed their run for gold with a 6-0 win against Romania in front of 5,000 fans.

It didn’t go that well from the very beginning. The Ukrainians lost the first game to Japan 1-0 on Taiga Abe’s third-period goal and with a 32-save shutout by Eiki Sato. But then the winning streak started.

On the second game the hosts won a key game against eventual runner-up Austria. The 5-3 victory in a game they were outshot 41-25 meant Ukraine had the advantage in the tie-breaker with Austria, which also had 12 points from four games with the only loss coming against Ukraine.

Austria held a 2-1 and 3-2 lead but Ukraine turned the game with three unanswered goals in the third frame. Two goals came from Hlib Krivoshabpin.

After victories against Hungary (4-3) and Italy (3-1) the Ukrainians were tied for first place with Austria and just needed to regulation-time win against last-ranked Romania. They got what they needed.

Austria recovered from the loss to Ukraine and also finished the tournament with a 3-1 record but couldn’t make up for the lost head-to-head game. With Dmytro Danylenko and Felix Morozov Ukraine had two players among the top-5 scorer. Danylenko was tied with Austria’s Benjamin Baumgartner, who also had thee goals and five assists.

Japan beat Italy 3-2 on the last day thanks to Taiki Takebe’s overtime winner to secure the bronze medals. Hungary finished fourth, Italy fifth and Romania will go down after fix mostly clear losses in the tournament.

For Ukraine the win is the biggest success in many years. It means a 17th-place finish overall in the U18 category and a top-16 spot for next year when Ukraine will compete in the Division I Group A and replace Slovenia. The last time the U18 team finished higher was in 2005 when it was 16th and the men’s and U20 national teams were among the top-16 in 2007.

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MARTIN MERK