As is so often the case, the 2025 IIHF World Championship Division I Group A tournament was highly competitive, with four teams still in the race to advance to the elite-level World Championship entering the final day of play. In the end, Great Britain and Italy will go up, with Ukraine being the surprise of the tournament – despite just being promoted from Group B, the Ukrainians finished third, just barely missing the double promotion.

Following the tournament, the Directorate awards recognized outstanding performances from players representing those three teams:

Top Goalkeeper – Bohdan Diachenko, Ukraine
Top Defender – Luca Zanatta, Italy
Top Forward – Liam Kirk, Great Britain

In three games, Diachenko had the best save percentage (96.51) and goals-against average (0.97) of any goalie in the tournament. Zanatta was an anchor on the Italian blueline and Kirk recorded seven points in just three games, putting the Great Britain over the top with his arrival for the team’s third game.

The tournament’s leading scorer was Ukraine’s Andri Denyskin with nine points, followed by his linemate Viktor Zakharov and Italy’s Daniel Ross Tedesco with eight points each. With five points each, GB’s Ben O’Connor and Nathanael Halbert were the top scorers among defencemen.

As a team, Great Britain had the best shooting efficiency, scoring on 13.01 per cent of their shots, slightly beating Ukraine’s 12.70. Japan had the best power play, 4-for-15 for 26.67 per cent, while GB was perfect on the PK, killing off all 15 of its shorthanded situations.

Attendance

The tournament drew a total of 31,181 spectators to the 15 games for an average of 2,145 – an impressive statistic for a facility, Sepsi Arena, that seats just over 2,500 for hockey. Host Romania played to almost full capacity with an average of 2,437 per game, while 11 of the 15 games drew more than 2,000 spectators.