Ukrainian refugee hockey team wins 1st game at Quebec City tournament

A team of young Ukrainian playerswon its firstgame at the 63rd Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament Saturday, to thunderous applause.

Three late goals gave the teammade up of Ukrainian refugees a 3-1 victory over theBoston Junior Bruins.

The match had stayed scoreless into the third period when Boston managed to get on the board.

ButUkraine promptly answered with a trio ofgoals in the last five minutes.

Thanks to the encouragement and applause froma packed Vidotron Centre, Team Ukraine Select secured a second match in the tournament.

Support for Ukraine

Rather than shuffle off the ice, members of the Boston Junior Bruins happily took part in a victory lap along with the Selects, which ended with the teams gathering again at centre ice.

The players thenposed for a picture with one player from each side holding up the ends of a large Ukrainian flag.

"First of all, it's a message that everybody can be friends and should be friends and live in peace and respect each other," said Denys Lupandin, who scored two of Ukraine'sthree goals Saturday, in an answer translated by coach Yevhenii Pysarenko.

"It doesn't matter from where you are."

Thousands of spectators wore white a symbol of peace to support Ukraine and waved Canadian and Ukrainian flags as both teams came together and linked arms during their respective national anthems.

The win comes after months of effort from Pysarenko and a Quebec City businessmanwho had to sort out visas and arrange travel for players.

The winning team arrived in Canada on Feb. 1 and has been playing since March 2022.