Denmark goes undefeated in gaining promotion

It isn’t often that an IIHF event enters the final gameday already knowing which country has gained promotion, but exactly that happened at the 2025 D1A U18 Worlds in Szekesfehervar, Hungary.

 

And the nation going up, namely Denmark, was on a clearcut redemption course all tournament long after having been the disappointment of last year’s tournament, one the Danish Ice Hockey Federation (Danmarks Ishockey Union) hosted!

 

By the time Game 4 against host Hungary rolled around, Denmark was already aware that a regulation win would seal the deal for the nation of roughly 6 million. After all, the 5-3 victory over Austria in the tournament’s first game really set the tone, but was followed by a most impressive 5-1 win over Ukraine 24 hours later, a result that raised its fair share of eyebrows among viewers after Ukraine had easily done away with host Hungary in the tournament’s second game by a score of 7-1. The convincing 5-2 win over Kazakhstan meant that Denmark only needed three more points to secure advancement.

 

Game 4 would pit the Danes against a host Hungarian side that had scored all of one goal in its first three games. And with mere survival now the name of the game, Hungary would see to it that Denmark had its hands full.

 

Playing in front of just under 700 spectators, Hungary’s Marcell Mayer opened up the scoring in the 9th minute of play when he one-timed a Ferenc Karsai pass shortly after an offensive zone faceoff to open up a 5-on-3 powerplay advantage. The lead would hold until Denmark got a powerplay of its own and Mads Klyvo received a cross-ice pass off the point from Mike Bergmann and wristed one past Hungarian keeper Bence Veres-Fucsku.

 

That same Mr. Bergmann would then score a 2nd period powerplay goal himself at the 27:12 mark, one off a one-timer that was set up through a beautiful fake no-look pass from Klyvo, giving Denmark a lead. If any felt it’d be the nail in the coffin, they thought wrong as Hungary responded not even two minutes later.

 

With 15-year old defenseman Emil Saaby Jakobsen having gone to the penalty box for a delay of game penalty, Hungarian forward Doman Szongoth eventually sent a simple pass to Mark Osztoics who backed his way into the crease and flipped the puck over the arm of Danish netminder Anton Wilde Larsen.

 

In the third period, with just 5 seconds to go on the 5-on-3 powerplay at the…