On May 9, 2026, the final games of the 2025/2026 season of the IHL amateur hockey league were held at Narva Jäähall with the support of the Narva City Government.
The following teams took part in the regular season:
- Vepr — Tallinn
- Tiigrid — Tallinn
- VVS — Kohtla-Järve
- Bears — Narva
- Stars — Narva
- Meteor — Narva
According to the results of the regular season, the Tiigrid team from Tallinn confidently led the standings. However, for their own reasons, the team refused to participate in the final games and the fight for the cup. As a result, by decision of the league’s organizing committee, the team was disqualified from the championship and banned from participating in the next Ida Hokiliiga season.
Therefore, the order of teams competing for the small and main Ida Cup had to be changed.
The teams competing for the main cup were:
- Stars
- Vepr
- VVS
Bears and Meteor competed for the small cup.
The final day began with the small cup game. Both teams were fully focused on the result and finished regular time with a score of 1:1. In a long shootout series, Narva Bears claimed the small cup after the winning shot by forward Jevgeni Šarov.
After that, Stars and VVS took to the ice. The main work was done already in the first period. After four goals from VVS and one goal from Stars in the first 10 minutes of play, it seemed that the outcome of the game had already been decided. However, two minutes before the end of the first period, Stars tied the score, and throughout the second period the teams played on equal terms.
Still, VVS made a mistake, and in the 25th minute Aleksandr Rabotinski scored the winning goal from a pass by Ilya Ilin, putting his team ahead in the final day standings.
Next, we saw VVS face the reigning league champions, Vepr. Once again, it was a tense battle, with both teams exchanging goals. The first period ended 3:1 in favor of Vepr.
In the second period, VVS tried to equalize, but they were unable to turn the game around. The match ended with a score of 4:2. As a result, VVS took third place in the Ida Cup competition.
The final game between season debutants Stars and reigning champions Vepr was a battle for the season championship — and it fully lived up to its title.
In the first period, the teams exchanged goals and finished it tied at 2:2.
During the first five minutes of the second period, the teams continued to trade goals, making the score 3:3. But Vepr, “gritting their tusks,” showed their championship character. First, Nikolai Mamadžanov, assisted by Filipp Svarõgin and Ilja Simagin, made it 3:4. Then, in the 29th minute of the match, Maksim Pantykhin, assisted by Aleksandr Babilo and Kirill Tšebotarjov, set the final score of the game — 3:5.
As a result, Vepr retained the championship title, while Narva Stars took an honorable second place in the Ida Cup.
Overall, this was a very eventful season for the league. We managed to organize a large-scale show between PSK and IHL All Stars, as well as the first historic clash between the all-star teams of two amateur leagues — IHL and HHL.
The league also strengthened its position in amateur hockey thanks to a non-standard approach to social media coverage and its own IT developments.
The league organizers would like to thank everyone who was involved in this season and helped make it happen:
- team representatives and players;
- ice arena administrations;
- sponsors and partners;
- volunteers and everyone who helped run the games.
And, of course, a big thank you to you, dear fans, for supporting us in the stands and on social media.
Thank you all for the 2025/2026 season!
See you next season! We are off to prepare many new and exciting things for you 🙂