The best goal scorer of the Ukrainian national team sums up the World Championship in hockey.

The best goal scorer of the Ukrainian national team at the World Championship in hockey, Viktor Zakharov, summed up the tournament for our team. This was reported by 'Glavkom' with reference to 'Suspilne Sport'.

The Ukrainian team performed in the IA division of the World Championship for the first Time in eight years and stopped one step away from returning to the elite division: Dmitry Kristich's team took third place in the group, losing the decisive match of the fifth round to Japan (2:3).

With the Japanese, Ukraine only needed to avoid losing in regulation time. In the fifth minute, it was the 'blue and yellow' that opened the scoring: Viktor Zakharov scored, making it five consecutive matches in the championship and setting a unique record for the national team.

Japan responded with three goals by the end of the second period - and despite Ukraine's second goal by Oleksiy Voronin at the 50th minute, it left Kristich's team outside the elite next season.

'We literally lacked half a goal. Perhaps, if we look at it soberly, we are still not ready for the elite. On the other hand, we needed to go there, just to see it. Real hockey, just like we saw in Latvia during the final Olympic qualification. In division IA, there was something similar, just unfortunate that we lacked one goal. Inside, we held the thought that we could get to the elite. [...] I think we just need to consolidate in this division and try to repeat the path we have now taken every year,' Zakharov said.

The hockey player finished the championship as the top scorer of division IA - six goals in five matches, to which the forward added two assists. Among the total number of organized goals, only Andriy Denyskin surpassed him with nine points.

'Yes, I am surprised. I think [personal performance at the World Championship 2025] is some kind of fantastic result. I cannot explain it logically, it just happened. [...] Personally for me, at 31, this is fantastic. I do not know what will happen next. It is nice that I was able to play this way and help the team. Yesterday I wrote to my wife: I did everything I could personally. It is unfortunate that we missed that third goal from the Japanese: I did not reach it, there was a shot - the puck hit Boroday, I did not see it, and that Japanese guy already broke away. Everything comes down to result. If we had earned that point yesterday, everyone might remember and say that there was such a hockey player who scored that many goals. And today or tomorrow, a couple of days will pass - and everyone will forget,' Zakharov said.

Viktor also noted the positive influence of the national team's coaching staff: under the leadership of Dmitry Kristich, the 'blue and yellow' reached division IA and participated in the final qualification round for the Olympic Games 2026, and on the ice of Sfintu Gheorghe, they defeated last year's elite participants from Poland (4:1).

'I think everything is logical, it is thanks to the coaching staff. They prepared us for this modern hockey, selected players - all this work was focused specifically on this result. This staff is ideally suited to solve these tasks. I hope it will remain for the next season. We started to be treated with more respect. Previously, no one regarded us at all. And here they themselves wanted to play friendly matches with us, as far as I know. Earlier we did not have such serious sparrings before the world championships. Basically, in the national team over the last two seasons, our mentality has changed. We have moved away from the Russian and Soviet styles we had before: there is more professionalism, [a better] approach to training and camps, all the guys are really professionals, a competent coaching staff. Plus, there are now U18-U20 coming up - you can see the results yourself. Maybe they will someday join [the national team] - there is great hope for that,' Zakharov said.