Last year, playing in Division I Group A of the IIHF World Championship for the first time since 2017, Ukraine did better than expected. The team finished third behind Great Britain and Italy, just missing out on promotion to the top division.

At this year’s IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A in Sosnowiec, Poland, the Ukrainians knew they weren’t going to take anybody by surprise. They opened with a 3-2 loss to host Poland, then beat newly-promoted Lithuania 2-1.

In perhaps their biggest test so far, they faced recently-relegated France in their third game, and played their best game so far, winning 3-2.

“We lost some points the first game, so we had to get those points back,” said captain Igor Merezhko.

Ukraine started fast in the game, building a 2-0 lead midway through the first period, with Merezhko scoring a power-play goal. France fought back to tie it in the second, but Ukraine took a 3-2 lead into the third period.

And then?

“We just built a wall there,” he smiled. “That’s the new model of the Ukrainian game. In the third period, we just try to protect our goalie. No big chances for them, play really good defence. Just a good team job.”

The architect of Ukraine’s new style of hockey is former NHLer Dmytro Khrystych, who was profiled by IIHF.com at last year’s tournament.

“We’re trying to play as a team,” Khrystych said last year. “We’re asking guys to buy into our system – that’s the most important thing.”

After the victory over France, Khrystych was asked about the qualities that make Merezhko a suitable captain for the team that he wants.

“First of all, he’s our only player who plays during the season at a level of hockey that is right in this I-A group,” Khrystych explained. “The rest of the guys play in leagues that have a bit of a slower pace, a bit lower level.

“And he also has the ability to lead the team, so that’s why he’s the captain.”

For the last two seasons, Merezhko, now 28, has patrolled the blueline for Skoda Plzen in the Czech Extraliga. While not a particularly offensive defenceman – he’s had 13 and 17 points in two 52-game regular seasons – he uses his 194cm, 100kg (6-foot-4, 220-pound) frame against some of that league’s top forwards. Among them are Olympians Roman Cervenka, Filip Chlapik, Libor Hudacek and Jordann Perret – the latter being the captain of the French team in Tuesday’s France-Ukraine game.

“The Czech league is, I think, one of the top three or four leagues in Europe right now,” said Merezhko. “It’s pretty hard to play there and it’s a good challenge for me.”

He added, “From playing in that league, I came here in really good shape. You know, when you practice with good players every day, you get better.”

With France out of the way, Ukraine’s next opponent on Thursday, following a day of rest, is Kazakhstan – the other team that was relegated from last year’s top-division World Championship. Merezhko and Khrystych figure the unbeaten Kazakhs will pose an even bigger test than France.

“That’s a challenge for us because we rarely play teams of that level,” said Merezhko. “We feel that we have a good team and we want to challenge ourselves. We want to see what we can do against top teams.”

And then, on Friday, Ukraine’s last game is against Japan. Last year, in Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania, the Ukrainians needed one point – also against Japan – to secure advancement. Instead, they lost 3-2 to a Japanese team that could go neither up nor down. After the game, a despondent Merezhko could barely hide his disappointment, and could only muster a few words about being “not satisfied with this.”

But he appears to have moved on from that, along with the rest of this team.

“We’ve already forgotten about last year,” he dismissed. “It’s a new year, so that doesn’t matter anymore. We’re getting ready for Kazakhstan now, and when that’s over, then we’ll look ahead to the next game.”

And Merezhko doesn’t seem concerned with the growing expectations of the Ukrainian team.

“Yeah, our team is growing, with younger guys getting better and better every year, and everybody is getting higher expectations of us,” said Merezhko. “That’s good, it shows we’re doing something right, but we’re still a young hockey nation, so we’re still taking it step by step. We’re not rushing anything. If we can win, good, but we’re just trying to play our best game.”