The last day began with four teams still alive with the two leading teams – Great Britain and Ukraine – in control of their own destiny. Both needed just a point to advance but only one of them got it. Meanwhile, Italy and Poland needed to win and get help, and one of them got it.

The issue of relegation had already been settled on Thursday, leaving Japan and Romania to play their final games with no pressure against opponents that faced plenty.

In the end, Great Britain and Italy earned promotion to the 2026 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland while Ukraine had to settle for bronze and will stay in Division I Group A, thanks to the results of Day 5:

• Japan over Ukraine 3-2,
• Italy over Romania 7-1, and
• Great Britain over Poland 3-0.

Japan 3 – Ukraine 2 (1-1, 2-0, 0-1)

After Thursday’s win over Romania, the Japanese could neither be promoted nor relegated and played their last game free of stress, in start contrast to the Ukrainians, who seemed to squeeze their sticks all game long.

Japan outshot Ukraine 15-9 in the opening period. Ukraine scored the game’s opening goal on a blind pass in front of his own net by Yuto Osawa that Viktor Zahkarov took advantage of, but otherwise Japan was the stronger team over the first two periods. Teruto Nakajima tied the score by putting in his own rebound after Alexander Levshin stopped his initial shot but neither the goalie nor his teammates could find the loose puck.

Late in the first period and early in the second, four straight Japanese penalties gave Ukraine two separate stretches with a 5-on-3 advantage but was unable to regain the lead. Then goals 53 seconds apart around the game’s midpoint by Taiga Irikura and Fuji Suzuki gave Japan a 3-1 lead.

“I think we had a good start, we stuck to our game and we were able to finish on some of our scoring chances, and that’s why we won,” said Japan’s Yushiroh Hirano. “It was a good game.”

Olexi Vorona converted a centring pass from Zakharov with 10:20 remaining to bring Ukraine within a goal, and then the Ukrainians pushed hard for the equalizer but were unable to get it, despite some great looks in the last two minutes with Levshin on the bench for an extra attacker.

“I knew they’d be coming hard,” said Hirano. “They had a great tournament. We’ve played against them a lot in the past, in Division I-B and now in I-A this year, and we’re going to see each other next year too. I think both teams have improved in the past few years and we’ll see what happens next year.”

“Like every team here, our goal was to go up but right now, we don’t have enough points, so I’m not satisfied with this,” said dejected Ukrainian captain Igor Merezkho.

Unable to get the required point to secure advancement, Ukraine’s hopes now rested on either Romania taking one point from Italy or Poland winning in regulation time against Great Britain.

Asked if he was going to watch the two remaining games, Merezhko answered, “I’m not. I’ll just wait for the results tonight. For now, I’ll just rest.”

Italy 7 – Romania 1 (3-1, 3-0, 1-0)

Already relegated, Romania could have helped Ukraine by taking at least a point in this game, but the tournament host ran into an Italian team on a mission. For the Italians, Ukraine’s loss in the opener opened the door to qualifying with a regulation win and they took full advantage of that opportunity, scoring three times in each of the first two periods en route to a 7-1 win.

Daniel Ross Tedesco had two goals and one assist for Italy while Nicholas Saracino had three assists. With Italy leading 2-0, Radim Valchar scored Romania’s lone goal with 5:21 left in the first period, giving the home fans a reason to cheer. However, Manuel Mantenuto restored Italy’s two-goal lead just 52 seconds later and the Italians never looked back.

“It wasn’t a perfect tournament by any means but we reached our goal,” said Italian defenceman Jason Seed.

Speaking about the favourable result in the first game of the day, he said, “For sure, we knew before our game that we needed that outcome for us to move up, but at the same time, there’s nothing we could do about that and we were getting ready to do a good job and win our game either way. We got a little bit lucky, I guess you could say, and Japan came up with a win, which is what we needed, but the rest was on us and we did our job.”

“We didn’t look ourselves this whole tournament and I don’t know what it was,” said Romania coach Dave MacQueen. “I don’t know if it was the pressure of playing at home, or if some of our guys were tired from playing in the (Erste Liga) finals and they didn’t have any rest coming into this.”

MacQueen added, “Our fans were fantastic, they came out to all three games every day, the atmosphere was great. It’s just unfortunate we couldn’t put on a better show for them.”

Great Britain 3 – Poland 0 (1-0, 2-0, 0-0)

And then it was down to the last game. Italy had claimed one of the advancement spots and the Brits had the inside track on the second spot. For them, nothing had changed since the morning, they still needed a point. Italy’s win had eliminated Poland but the Poles could help out their Ukrainian neighbours by beating GB or at least taking the game to overtime.

But instead, Britain won the game outright, 3-0. Captain Robert Dowd led the offence, figuring in on all of the scoring in the game with a goal and two helpers.

“We knew we only needed one point but we didn’t want to come with that defensive mentality, we wanted to win this game and we built all tournament to play our best hockey at the end,” said Dowd. “We didn’t have a very long pre-tournament get-together – we only had three days and no pre-tournament games, so we had to build as the tournament went on and I think that’s what we did.”

Late in the first period, Dowd’s shot off the rush was kicked aside by Polish goaltender Tomas Fucik but Josh Waller was in the right place to convert the rebound. As the game approached its midpoint, it was another rebound goal to make it 2-0. This time it was Joseph Hazeldine with the initial shot and Dowd who put the loose puck upstairs. And with five minutes left in the middle frame, Dowd and Waller off the rush set up Ollie Betteridge with a spinaround shot from the slot that beat Fucik between the wickets.

What was missing from the Polish game?

“Goals, that’s the easy answer,” said Polish forward Krzysztof Macias. “Nobody’s going to look back and see what style of game we played and nobody’s going to look at the video. They’re going to see the score and we lost 3-0. In those key moments, they were more experienced and they were better than us.”

Although GB had the more dangerous chances in the game, Poland actually held a 40-31 edge in shots, including 18-3 in the third period. Ben Bowns, however, stopped everything directed his way to record the shutout.

“He’s been fantastic since he first came to this national team,” Dowd said of the British goalie. “He changes games for us. When we go to the top pool, both goalies Jackson (Whistle) and Bownsy keep us in those big games and in this group, they keep our leads and keep us right in the hunt.”

As the minutes wound down and the game well in control, the British faithful known as the “Barmy Army” knew that promotion and first place were both well in hand and chanted continuously. When the clock reached zero, the British players poured off the bench, threw their gloves and sticks in the air and joined them.

Final standings:

1. Great Britain, 12 points – promoted to elite division
2. Italy, 10 points – promoted to elite division
3. Ukraine, 9 points
4. Japan, 7 points
5. Poland, 6 points
6. Romania, 1 point – relegated to Division I Group B