For the first time, a Belarusian club has won the Euro-Asian Friendship Hockey Cup. And it's "Vitebsk"!
January 12, 2026
For the first time, a Belarusian club has won the Euro-Asian Friendship Hockey Cup. And it's "Vitebsk"!
In the final, our compatriots played against the Russian team "Torpedo-Gorky". "Vitebsk" scored two goals in the first period (Vyacheslav Ipatov and Evgeny Astankov). The second period passed without goals, and in the final third, the Russians scored their first reply goal. But our team did not allow the opponent to achieve more, and the game ended with a score of 2:1.
"Vitebsk" has done what other top teams of the Belarusian championship - "Yunost", "Metallurg", and others - failed to achieve in the history of the tournament.
We remind you that our compatriots took first place in the preliminary stage of the tournament, defeating the Kazakh "Nomad", the Russian "Khimik" from the Moscow region, and "Gomel". In the semi-final match of the decisive stage, Vitebsk defeated "Yunost".
It should be noted that the final opponent has many players with experience playing in the KHL (the second strongest hockey league in the world). This makes the victory of our compatriots even more valuable.
Alexander Subbotin congratulated "Vitebsk" on their victory in the Euro-Asian Friendship Hockey Cup on his Instagram account.
- Congratulations to our team, our "bears" on an amazing victory!!!! We all cheered for you and proved that we can do anything and even more!! We defeated the cyclone together, won in hockey, and I hope this is just the beginning of a series of victories for the new year!
Following the tournament, the best players were determined. Representatives of "Vitebsk" received recognition in three nominations. Moreover, Roman Bobariko was noted in two of them - he was recognized as the best goaltender and the most valuable player. Sergey Safin-Tregubov was named the best defenseman.
The team from the northern capital has won the third trophy in its history – all in recent years. Recall that before this, "Vitebsk" had won the Saley Cup twice.
Photo courtesy of the Ice Hockey Federation of Belarus press service.