Hosted in Prague and Ostrava, the tournament will see 16 national teams battle it out in the group stages before entering a knockout phase that will culminate in a final to be contested on May 26.

For Polish fans, their team’s opening match against Latvia on Saturday brings to an end a 22-year wait to play elite ice hockey. Playing top-flight hockey for the first time since 2002, the White Eagles will be brimming with confidence following back-to-back promotions.

High as morale may be, expectations are modest with the focus firmly set on survival. “We’re pretty realistic,” said American-born veteran goalie John Murray. “We know we need to come up with points against Kazakhstan and / or France and maybe pick up a few points here or there from another team.”

Avoiding relegation, says captain Krystian Dziubinski, will allow Poland to build and solidify. “We're trying to catch up,” he said. “We know that we’re not going to get it right in every game but we know where we can create chances and we’ll go from there.”

Pitted in Group B alongside France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States, the Poles have a tough grind ahead of them. However, the team can count on partisan support from their traveling army of fans.

Playing their games just across the border in Ostrava, the White Eagles are set to be one of the best-supported teams of the tournament. “It’s great that our fans are so close,” said former forward Mariusz Czerkawski. “Our followers love Czech and Slovak beer and I’m certain we’ll see plenty of flags and singing. I’m sure the players are going to squeeze out every ounce of strength to go on the ice and make their fans proud.”

Poland first played in the Ice Hockey World Championships in 1928. Their finest hour, though, was to come in 1976 with a sensational 6-4 victory over the Soviet Union in Katowice. Regarded as one of the greatest upsets in international hockey, just months previously Poland had been vanquished 16-1 by the same Soviet team.