Ukraine’s players could barely stand still.
As the final seconds of regulation ticked away in a tied game between Poland and Lithuania at Sosnowiec Winter Arena in Poland on May 8, a massive group erupted outside a locker room entrance covered by a giant Ukrainian flag. Ukraine needed anything except a Poland regulation victory to secure a spot in the 2027 World Championship for the first time since 2007, and a 1-1 score guaranteed exactly that.
Players screamed, jumped into each other’s arms and pounded the walls in celebration.
Then Lithuania won 2-1 in overtime.
Inside a corridor near the locker rooms, Ukraine’s players waited for the Lithuanians to walk off the ice. Then the chanting began.
“Lietuva! Lietuva!”
Some Ukrainian players had sprinted up into the arena seating during the closing minutes. Others cried openly. Coaches hugged inside their office adjoining the locker room, trying to process what had just happened.
“We heard all the noise and still couldn’t fully believe it,” Ukraine coach Dmitri Khristich said. “The emotions overwhelmed everyone.”
For Ukraine, this was about much more than hockey.
Earning a spot in the 2027 Worlds capped a remarkable run at the Division 1A tournament held May 2-8 in Sosnowiec. Ukraine opened with a 3-2 loss to Poland despite outshooting the hosts 32-22, then defeated Lithuania 2-1 and France 3-2 before losing 5-4 in a shootout to Kazakhstan, the tournament winner. Ukraine defeated Japan 3-1 in its final game, finishing second and, with the Poland result, earning a place at the 2027 IIHF World Championship in Germany.
The rise has not been entirely sudden. Ukraine earned promotion from Division 1B in 2024 under Khristich, then narrowly missed advancing again last year after losing 3-2 to Japan in a game where a regulation tie would have been enough.
This time, with a little help from Lithuania, Ukraine finished the job.
Khristich later smiled describing the difference between his team and Kazakhstan.
“Kazakhstan played hockey,” he said. “We chased it.”
Somehow, his team kept chasing it all the way back to the top division.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022. More than four years afterward, Ukraine’s national hockey team has become something larger than a sports team for many Ukrainians -- a source of continuity, identity, and, at times, emotional relief.
“With everything our country is going through, we feel it,” Khristich said. “We feel support not only from ordinary fans, but also from people serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We make it a point to thank our soldiers in every interview with Ukrainian media.
“There’s motivation to go out not only for yourself, not only for your fans, but for your country.”
Khristich, the all-time leading scorer for players born and trained in Ukraine in NHL history, had 596 points (259 goals, 337 assists) in 811 games with the Washington Capitals, Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs from 1990-2002. A two-time NHL All-Star, he also won gold medals at the 1989 IIHF World Junior Championship and 1990 IIHF World Championship representing the Soviet Union before later playing for Ukraine at three consecutive World Championships from 2001-03 and the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Yet the 56-year-old said the emotions in Poland rivaled almost anything he experienced during his playing career.
“Maybe only winning the World Junior Championship in Anchorage (Alaska) in 1989 compares,” Khristich said. “Back then we were 20-year-old kids, far from home, playing against future NHL stars from Canada and the United States.
“This time, it felt similar.”
Khristich smiled recalling how restrained he appeared during the on-ice medal ceremony while his players celebrated wildly around him.
“At my age, maybe it’s better not to jump too much,” he joked. “You can slip.”
Still, beneath the humor sat something deeper.
Ukraine’s roster in Poland reflected the fractured reality of Ukrainian hockey today. Only seven players came from clubs in the domestic league. The rest were scattered across Europe and North America, many having left after the war began and unable to freely return home.
Ukraine also brought the youngest roster in the tournament, with an average age of just over 25.
“For the players, being separated from family, from home, it’s indescribably difficult,” Khristich said. “They didn’t leave by choice. Their whole lives changed completely.”
Ukraine continued operating its domestic league after the war began, though under difficult conditions and with only five teams in 2025-26. Gathering the national team remains complicated. Ukraine had no exhibition games before the tournament except an unofficial one against Hungary. The training camp the team held in Hungary included just 25 players, including three goalies.
“We couldn’t even properly scrimmage,” Khristich said. “We practiced basically 12 against 13.”
Yet something formed within the group during those weeks together.
“There was unity in the team,” Khristich said. “Everybody connected with everybody. The team looked like a team.”
Captain Igor Merezhko, 28, became one of the emotional anchors. At one point before the tournament, coaches jokingly ordered players not to spend too much time together away from the rink.
“We told them, ‘Other than breakfast and dinner, no groups larger than two people tomorrow,’” Khristich said with a laugh. “We’d already spent three weeks together. We said, ‘Go rest from each other a little.’”
Instead, the bond only strengthened.
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For North American audiences, some realities of Ukrainian hockey remain difficult to imagine.
During domestic league games, air raid sirens can stop play entirely. Players leave the ice and head into bomb shelters. If the alert continues long enough, games are postponed until the next day.
“You can play 2 1/2 periods, have 10 minutes left, and suddenly everyone has to stop,” Khristich said. “The visiting team has to stay overnight and come back the next morning to finish the game. It’s very unhealthy psychologically. Very difficult.”
Khristich experienced the beginning of the war firsthand while living in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, when Russian forces invaded. He remained there for about a month before leaving the country.
Even after relocating abroad, ordinary sounds affected him differently.
“The sound of an airplane shocked me,” he said. “In Ukraine, the sky has been closed for civilian flights for years. People immediately recognize what they hear -- whether it’s a drone or a missile.
“I was fortunate compared to many others. I was in central Ukraine. We didn’t see or hear many missiles directly, but the air raid sirens were constant, and we still had to go down into bomb shelters. Everything was emotionally exhausting.”
The war also shattered personal relationships.
“I was talking to some friends in Russia, including (former Capitals teammate) Andrei Nikolishin. We had been very good friends for decades. He was trying to calm me down, telling me not to do anything reckless, not to pick up a weapon.”
Khristich recalled the nerve-racking early weeks of March 2022, when Russian troops were advancing toward Kyiv through Bucha and the northern outskirts of the capital.
“I couldn’t even imagine what people there were living through,” he said. “I knew people through hockey who went to volunteer to help defend Kyiv. One of them told me they wouldn’t give him a weapon. He said, ‘I have a saber. I’ll go with that.’”
* * * *
For all the emotional strain surrounding the team, Khristich repeatedly returned to one theme: normalcy.
He rejected the idea that Ukrainians have grown used to war.
“‘Getting used to it’ is a bad choice of words when talking about war,” he said. “But people adapt somehow. They try to continue living.”
Sports, he believes, are part of that process.
“We wanted to bring something positive home,” Khristich said.
Now Ukraine returns to the top division, where it will take on the world’s elite nations.
Khristich understands the challenge. He spent much of his own career at hockey’s highest levels and still hopes to continue working in the game long term, perhaps as a scout or coach in North America.
But in Poland this month, the job was simpler.
Keep Ukraine together.
Give people something to celebrate.
And for one unforgettable night in a corridor outside a locker room, that was enough.
