The “blue-yellows” lost all three matches in the decisive stage of the Olympic qualification.
The Ukrainian national hockey team suffered a defeat from Sloveniain the third round of the final round of the selection for the 2026 Olympic Games. The match in Riga ended with a score of 6:2 in favor of the “blue-yellows” opponent.
In the first period, Jan Urbas and Jan Drozg provided the Slovenians with a two-goal handicap.
In the second 20 minutes, Drozg once again hit the goal of the Ukrainian team, but our hockey players responded with their own two goals – Vitaly Lalka and Filipp Pangelov-Yuldashev brought the intrigue back to this match.
However, the decisive period turned out to be favorable for the Slovenians. Urbas, Žiga Jeglic and Anže Kuralt scored, which meant a crushing defeat for the Ukrainians.
Thus, the Ukrainian team finished its performance in the final round of the 2026 Olympics selection with three defeats. In the first match, our team suffered a crushing defeat to France (2:7), and in the second, they suffered a crushing defeat from Latvia (1:5).
Without a single point scored and with a goal difference of 5:18, the Ukrainians took the last place in their quartet. The “blue-yellows” lost their chances to qualify for the 2026 Olympics after the second match. Slovenia (3 points) finished in third place.
Only the winner of the quartet will receive a ticket to the Olympics. In the final round, it will be played between Latvia and France, which after two victories in a row have 6 points each.
Recall that the Ukrainian national hockey team has only played at the Olympic Games once – in 2002, the Ukrainians took tenth place at the Olympic tournament in Salt Lake City (USA).