Grabovetsky on the victory over Estonia: We didn’t think it would be so hard. It’s good that we were able to turn the tide of the match

Forward of the youth national hockey team of Ukraine Artem Grabovetsky commented the team’s third victory at the 2022 World Cup in Polish Bytom over Estonia (3:2).

Note that it was Grabovetsky who became the author of the winning puck of our team in this match, and not Daniil Tsarkovskiy, as the judges erroneously recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

“On one of the last shifts, we changed the tactics and the combination of lines so that the improvisation became a surprise for the opponent and it worked: Vova Volkov perfectly stretched the puck into the zone, threw it from behind the gate at Tsarkovskiy, who, apparently, tried to throw it in touch, but the puck jumped off the “pen” right on my stick, and I already “buried” her in the goal. It’s good that we were able to turn the tide of the match and everything ended as it should for us.”

“Did you expect such fierce resistance from Estonia? Yes, we knew that they were closing the standings and it was important for them to score points in the remaining three meetings, but we didn’t think it would be so hard.

“What did they talk about in the timeout? Most of the words were said about tactics, since the Estonians completely “dismantled” our majority, and the coaches decided to change the draw of the “extra”: instead of Nikita Sidorenko, whose eyes went dark after a push in the back and contact with the board in the debut of the first period, they decided to release Stas Sadovikov … And then there was the second exit of the impromptu special team, after which the winning goal followed.

“One thing is clear: we need to remove the penalties from our game, because in the 5 on 5 game, as our coach says, we have no equal in this world championship. There are too many two-minute penalties that we have to “kill” in our own zone, instead of spending these two minutes in a foreign zone.

“We have a game with Korea ahead of us. They brought to the tournament a very fast, disciplined team capable of surprises. And we need to focus on the next game and take three points, because we are stronger! The main thing is not to think about the last meeting with Japan and approach the next game responsibly.”

The Ukrainian U-20 team in the third round of the 2022 World Hockey Championship in division 1B defeated the Estonian team (3:2). This is the third consecutive victory of the Ukrainian team in the tournament. Earlier, the Ukrainian U-20 team beat the teams of Italy and Poland. The blue-yellows have 9 points and the first position in the group.

In the next match, Alexander Bobkin’s team will play against South Korea. The meeting will take place on Friday, December 16th.