After more than 20 years of struggling in the bottom divisions, the Polish national ice hockey team secured a promotion to the Elite Division after defeating Romania 6:2. Next year’s championships of the top-flight group are going to be held in Ostrava, the Czech Republic.

🥲🥲🥲 pic.twitter.com/lRStJdkTFP

— Polish Puck (@PolandHockey) May 5, 2023

The final match

The Poles, after coming out with victories in key matches against Italy and South Korea, only needed a win against Romania, which is considered one of the weaker teams in the division.

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The game started unexpectedly for the Poles though, as Romania scored a goal in the 10th minute. Clearly miffed by such a turn of events, the White and Reds were unable to respond in the first period.

The second period of the game was a completely different story. The Poles came out motivated, and played faster, more accurately, and aggressively, which brought them four goals, scored by Grzegorz Pasiut, Bartłomiej Jeziorski, Bartosz Fraszko and Alan Łyszczarczyk.

In the final period, Polish fans counted the minutes till the end of the match, while the white and red hockey players focused on guarding the favorable result.

The Romanians managed to score only one goal, to which the Poles responded with two, and the Polish national team took the fully deserved 6:2 victory.

Poland wins their last game of the tournament! One step closer to promotion!
Game Story:https://t.co/aKKL6qM7wJ#IIHFWorlds Div 1A @PZHL pic.twitter.com/hPwmvuGg3c

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 5, 2023

This result means that Poland will play in the elite division of the Ice Hockey World Championships for the first time since 2002. The other promoted team will be determined by the Friday evening game between Great Britain and Italy.