Friendly Match 1. September 4, 18:00. Torun, Tor-Tor Arena.
Friendly Match 2. September 5, 15:00. Torun, Tor-Tor Arena.
Broadcast: Telewizja Torun YouTube channel
The final opponent for Oleg Tymchenko’s team in their preseason preparations will be the Polish side Torun. For our team, this will be the first-ever match against a Polish rival.
Last season, the Citizens, led by Finnish head coach Sami Hirvonen, finished sixth in the Polish Hockey League regular season and lost 3:4 in the quarterfinal series to Unia Oswiecim.
Overall, the club’s history dates back to 1924. Over this period, Torun finished as runners-up once and claimed bronze medals in the top division five times. Our upcoming opponent has also won the Polish Cup once.
Ahead of the start of the 2026/2027 season, Torun’s roster consists of nearly 60% Polish players (16 out of 27), with another eleven representing other nationalities.
First and foremost, it is worth highlighting Ukrainian national team player Andrii Denyskin, who recently contributed to our national team’s historic qualification for the World Championship top division. For the 28-year-old Kyiv native, the upcoming season will be his third with the Citizens.
Torun’s roster has been bolstered by two Kazakhstan national team players with no prior experience playing in Poland: goalkeeper Roman Kalmykov and forward Viacheslav Kolesnikov (both from Nomad, Kazakhstan). Another representative of the country, Ruslan Bashirov, has been defending Torun’s colors since 2023.
Two Finns who previously played exclusively in their homeland have also joined the team – Mikael Tapio (Hermes) and Santeri Peltola (Pyry Hockey). In addition to them, foreign newcomers for our upcoming opponent include Estonian national team player Robert Ossipov (Kiruna, Sweden), Swedish Anton Brandhammar (Rodovre Mighty Bulls, Denmark), Japanese national team player Chikara Hanzawa (Anyang, South Korea), and Latvian Danila Larionovs (Sisak, Croatia).
Sami Hirvonen’s squad began their preseason friendly series on August 7 with a match against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, which ended in a 3:8 defeat. This was followed by an overtime victory (4:3) and a loss (2:5) against Polonia Bytom, a defeat to Unia Oswiecim (3:6), and a win over Sokil Kyiv (6:0).
Tomorrow, we will see how the Polish-Ukrainian battle on the ice at the Tor-Tor Arena unfolds.
