The first two games of the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A saw the two most recently relegated teams need third-period comebacks to win in regulation time. The nightcap between two neighbouring nations saw Poland take the lead three times and Ukraine equalizing only twice.
Results of Day 1:
- France over Japan 4-3,
- Kazakhstan over Lithuania 4-1, and
- Poland over Ukraine 3-2
In the tournament opener, France completely dominated Japan but led only 1-0. The French found themselves trailing 3-2 late, but captain Jordann Perret scored the tying and winning goals in the last two minutes of regulation time.
“That was a tough game,” said Perret. “I don’t think we’re going to have any easy games in this tournament. Japan was very strong in the D zone, blocking shots and everything, but we need to trust ourselves, trust the system, and keep pushing like we did. It worked today, so we need to keep going like that and get better for tomorrow and after.”
France outshot Japan 23-2 in the first period but didn’t score until near the end, when Guillaume Leclerc’s centring attempt hit the stick of a Japanese defender and slid between the pads of Yuta Narisawa.
France continued to hold an edge in the second period, although the Japanese did come with more of an offensive push and tied the game in the 33rd minute with Kenta Takagi tipped Yuki Miura’s point shot. France regained the lead late in the middle frame on Tomas Sorensen’s one-timer on the power play but Japan struck twice early in the third period to take the lead.
Fuji Suzuki’s weak-angle shot over the shoulder of Antoine Keller tied it, and then Yu Sato gave Japan the lead 46 seconds later, winning a race to a loose puck in the French zone and beating Keller on a backhand deke.
“We just kept telling each other, ‘Keep shooting, keep shooting!’” Suzuki explained. “I was just following that strategy.”
Japanese starting goalie Yuta Narisawa, who stopped 39 of 41 French shots, was surprisingly replaced by Issa Otsuka midway through the third period. With Keller lifted for a sixth attacker, Perret tied the game with 2:22 remaining, sweeping the puck in while being tripped. On the winning goal less than a minute later, he took a pass from Simonsen and fired it top corner.
“There’s a lot of regrets,” said Suzuki. “We could have won, but 6-on-5 they were very strong.”
Lithuania 1 – Kazakhstan 4 (1-0, 0-0, 0-4)
The other team coming down from the top division, Kazakhstan, fell behind early and stayed behind until they scored four straight goals to win 4-1. Like France, the Kazakhs also dominated the game, outshooting Lithuania 33-13. Goaltender Faustas Nauseda kept them at bay for two periods.
“I thought I played well for two periods,” said Nauseda. “But then in the third period, they continued to pressure us and I couldn’t continue to make the same saves I did in the first two periods.”
Lithuania went to the power play just 1:07 in and cashed in 49 seconds later courtesy of Aivaras Bendzius in close.
The rest of the opening period, however, was all Kazakhstan, but in the second period, Lithuania made it a more even battle. Despite an 18-8 deficit in shots through two periods, the narrow Lithuanian lead lasted almost exactly 40 minutes before the dam burst. The best Kazakh chance came on a second-period power play, when Artur Gatiyatov missed an open net.
“The attitude was good,” said Kazakh defenceman Tamarlan Gaitamirov. “We played good throughout the first two periods. They took like two shots on us and scored a goal, and we had a lot of chances that we didn’t score on. We’ve just gotta get better at finishing our chances, but props to Lithuania. They played well.”
Early in the third period, Kazakhstan finally tied it up. The Kazakhs were buzzing around the Lithuanian zone at the tail end of a power play and with the teams back at even strength, there was a wild scramble in the crease, with Kirill Sivitskiy finally poking home the puck.
The Kazakhs kept coming and they took their first lead of the game with 13:06 on another goalmouth scramble. The puck came out of a big crowd of players in front back to Gatiyatov in the high slot. He managed to get his waist-high shot through the forest and into the back of the net.
“Traffic is important,” said Gaitamirov. “We need to do that from the beginning – we probably didn’t have enough in the first and second periods. Our captain, Roman Starchenko, had four or five shots but the goalie saw everything.”
“The first goal I could see – it was a pass to the middle, took a deflection off the D’s skate before I could recover for the second shot,” Nauseda described. “But yeah, the one after, it was a bit of a mess in front of the net. I think I could have killed the play before it went out into the middle but then when the shot went in, I didn’t see anything, for sure.”
With just under five minutes to play, Semyon Simonov’s rebound goal put Kazakhstan firmly in the driver’s seat. With under two minutes left, Gatiyatkov’s shot went in off the skate of Fedor Khoroshev.
Poland 3 – Ukraine 2 (1-1, 1-0, 1-1)
Following the official opening ceremonies, the host team faced Ukraine before an energetic full house that was taken on an emotional rollercoaster.
“I’m so happy and so grateful that we had a full rink,” said forward Aron Chmielevski. “We heard them in the tough moments and they were our sixth player on the ice.”
“It was a really great atmosphere – thank you to the fans,” Ukraine’s Danil Trakht agreed. “I think both teams played good hockey. It was our first game, the first period wasn’t very good, but we still have four games left and we know where we have to improve.”
“That was a very hard game,” said Chmielevski. “A lot of PK time was our trouble in the game – a lot of stupid penalties with the stick, so we have to learn from that. But we had some good luck, our goalie was great, we scored some big goals and the last five minutes, we defended well.”
The teams traded goals in an evenly-played opening period. Aron Chmielevski took a pass from Karol Bilas and fired it top corner at 12:56, sending most of the Sosnowiec crowd into a frenzy. Daniil Trakht tied it five minutes later on the power play, but it wasn’t a typical power-play goal – the young Ukrainian winger went coast-to-coast, beat two Polish penalty killers, and finished with a backhander to bring the not-insignificant Ukrainian contingent to its feet.
Poland regained the lead on a power play of its own in the 29th minute. Kamil Walega’s cross-ice pass found Patryk Wronka at the back door and Diachenko was slow to get across due to a screen in front affecting his vision.
Early in the third period, Andri Denyskin tied it again for Ukraine, taking a pass from Igor Merezkho and firing a shot past Tomas Fucik. Ukraine then pushed hard for the go-ahead marker, and with 7:27 to go, Olexi Vorona fired high from right in front and looked skyward in disbelief as the puck sailed out of play.
Less than a minute later, it was Poland scoring, with Patryk Krezolek picking up the rebound off Kamil Gorny’s long shot and backhanding it past Diachenko.
“I think we totally controlled the game (in the third period) and when you don’t take advantage of those chances, it can come back on you,” Trakht sighed.
Sunday’s schedule:
12:30 – Kazakhstan vs Japan
16:00 – Ukraine vs Lithuania
19:30 – France vs Poland
All times listed in Central European Summer Time.