Ukraine won a tense shootout 3-2 in Poland earlier this month on its way to clinching a berth in the final Olympic qualification round this August.PressFocus/Reuters
It has been a long time since words such as “euphoria” and “unforgettable” were used to describe a Ukrainian hockey win.
Yet after toppling top-ranked Poland, a team they had not beaten in 11 years, Ukrainian players tried to find a way to express their emotions.
In a game the team never led, Ukraine won a tense shootout 3-2 in Poland earlier this month on its way to clinching a berth in the final Olympic qualification round this August.
“I haven’t felt such emotions in hockey for a long time … it is very difficult to convey in words,” said goaltender Bohdan Dyachenko, who was mobbed by jubilant teammates after his game-winning save.
“The last save, the last shot – I will remember them for a very long time.”
“Simply euphoria,” assistant captain Vitali Lyalka said after the win. “I don’t remember the last time we could celebrate such a win.”
“My wife said she has never seen my face like this,” captain Ihor Merezhko said. “Not even during our wedding.”
But the most poignant postgame message Merezhko received was from his father. The celebration was short-lived.
“My dad is a big fan of hockey and has watched me my whole life,” Merezhko said a day after the game.
“After the game [against Poland], our town was bombed and people died. He got upset. He couldn’t even think about hockey after that.” Merezhko was referring to a Russian drone attack on his hometown of Kharkiv, which killed a family of five, including two young children and an infant.
Russia’s war has hurt all Ukrainian society and the hockey community is no exception.
Arenas have been destroyed, at least five players have been killed, and many national team players have been forced to play abroad.
Some players, such as goalie Eduard Zakharchenko, have chilling stories to tell.
Zakharchenko was playing for Ukraine’s Dnipro Kherson team when the Russian army stormed the city almost two years ago. He described his escape after living under Russian occupation for two months.
“It took us at least eight hours to cross the border [into Russian-occupied Crimea]. We had to go through like 15 checkpoints,” he said.
“These … guys in balaclavas with machine guns were looking at you, asking who you are, and where you are going.”
He told the Russian soldiers that he was a professional hockey player, but couldn’t play after the occupation, and was thus leaving for Europe. He noted that he had played together with Russian players in the past.
His explanation wasn’t enough for the guards.
Zakharchenko was taken to a hangar in the middle of a field, where he remembers a horrifying sight.
“There was a large metal chain hanging from the roof. There was a sheep attached to it,” he recalled. “It was headless, and blood was dripping down from it.”
A Russian soldier interrogated Zakharchenko. As his bags were searched, he was told to strip to his underwear and had his hands bound behind him.
“They were looking for tattoos. He accused me of being in the Aidar battalion, the Crimean battalion [military units of Ukraine’s army].” He said that he expected to be tortured.
Unlike many other Ukrainians who never made it through Russia’s border procedures, Zakharchenko was allowed to dress and go back to his bus. But before he reached the door, the interrogator called him back.
“If you’re going to Europe, maybe you have some money for me,” the Russian soldier asked. Zakharchenko handed the man the equivalent of about $1.50.
The guard smiled. “Maybe I’ll see you play on TV,” he told the bewildered Ukrainian goalie.
Zakharchenko travelled through hostile territory for some 35 hours before crossing into Lithuania.
Russia’s invasion shut down the Ukrainian hockey league, forcing much of the national team abroad. When the league returned to action, many players were with foreign teams, diminishing the quality of Ukraine’s league.
The near-daily air raids also play havoc with training schedules, though teams have become so accustomed to them that most usually just play through the blare of the sirens. The games were also played without fans, so as to not attract any Russian aerial strikes. However, as of next week, the Ukrainian hockey federation is opening games to spectators.
“Life is such that you have to somehow find a way to get used to it,” Lyalka said about playing through air raids. “We need to train.”
The outflow of talent abroad puts Ukraine’s national team at a disadvantage. The speed of the international game was an adjustment for those players still playing in Ukraine.
“Absolutely there is a lower level [compared to before the invasion],” Lyalka said. “It is very difficult to adjust … You arrive, have one training session, an exhibition game, then you are playing for keeps. It’s bang-bang. You saw it in the Poland game – they brought it to us in the first period. We just had to adjust.”
While no player on the national team has been in a facility that has been bombed, Russia has damaged or destroyed at least five arenas in Ukraine. The home of HC Donbas in Druzhkivka was annihilated by a Russian missile strike in January, 2023. The Mariupol Ice Centre, which was only opened in 2020, was ruined when Russia laid waste to the city.
The Mariupol Ice Center was part of a 500 million Ukrainian hryvnia (about $27.25-million) government project to build rinks across Ukraine. That funding has since been redirected to the war effort.
Still, Ukraine finds ways to forge ahead.
A new arena opened in Zaporizhzhia during the war and a new arena and rehabilitation centre is slated for Lviv. Both projects are entirely financed through private donations.
“The arena in Zaporizhzhia houses a youth hockey team and will eventually open its own figure-skating school,” Ukrainian hockey federation president Georgi Zubko said.
“The centre in Western Ukraine will be a valuable resource for veteran rehabilitation and will specifically be aimed at developing Ukrainian Para ice hockey.”
Zubko pointed to the Ukrainian Hockey Dream initiative as a leading platform to collect private donations “to preserve hockey during wartime, support children, and eventually rebuild damaged infrastructure.”
Overcoming the challenges of the war makes Team Ukraine’s on-ice success even more remarkable.
After its triumphs over Poland, South Korea and Estonia, Ukraine was set to be drawn into a qualification group alongside Belarus. The following day, the IIHF announced it would not lift its suspensions on Russia or Belarus this season, thereby disqualifying Belarus from Olympic qualification.
Making the 2026 Olympics would be a monumental achievement for a Ukrainian team that has not reached the Winter Games since 2002. That team beat France and Switzerland in Salt Lake City but fell 1-0 to the same Belarus side that Canada defeated in the semi-final on the way to its first Olympic hockey gold in 50 years.
This year’s team can draw directly from that Olympic experience.
Ukraine is coached by former Maple Leaf and NHL all-star Dmytro Khrystych and goalkeeper Ihor Karpenko, known for winning the top goaltender award at the 1995 world junior championship in Red Deer, Alta.
“We’re one step closer to the dream,” Khrystych said.
While the players strive to write a new chapter of hockey glory, they are fully aware of who the real heroes are back home.
“Our soldiers are doing unbelievable things – they define our country,” said Olexi Vorona, whose shootout goal beat Poland. “We must show in our hearts that we left everything on the ice … So, everyone knows that we are trying to do everything we can do for our country.”
Lee Reaney is from Saskatoon and is the award-winning editor of Lviv Today and the only foreign journalist accredited with the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.
Joel Wasserman is an American freelance journalist and editor based in Lviv, Ukraine.