2017 IIHF World Championship Division III

The 2017 IIHF World Championship Division III was an international ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in Sofia, Bulgaria from 10 to 16 April 2017.[1] Seven teams participated in the tournament, divided into two groups. Bosnia and Herzegovina was originally scheduled to participate, but withdrew before the tournament began; all their games were recorded as 5–0 forfeits for the opposing team.[2] Luxembourg won the tournament, defeating Bulgaria 10–4 in the final, and played in Division IIB in 2018.[3] Chinese Taipei debuted in Division III and, apart from defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina in a forfeit, recorded their first official win, beating the UAE 4–0 in the 5th place playoff.[4]

Main article: 2017 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships

2017 IIHF World Championship
Division III

Tournament details
Host country	Bulgaria
Dates	10–16 April
Teams	7
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	161 (10.73 per match)
Attendance	4,800 (320 per match)
Scoring leader(s)	Artem Kozyulin (25 points)
Website	IIHF.com
← 2016 2018 →

Venues

Division III

Sofia

Winter Sports Palace Capacity: 4,600

The Bulgarian bid was the only contender for the 2017 IIHF World Championship Division III competition.[1] It will mark the first time that this competition has been held in Bulgaria. In September 2016 the format of the division was realigned into one tournament with two preliminary divisions.

Participants

Team	Qualification
Bulgaria	Host, placed 6th in Division II B last year and were relegated.
South Africa	Placed 2nd in Division III last year.
Luxembourg	Placed 3rd in Division III last year.
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Placed 4th in Division III last year. (withdrew from tournament)
Hong Kong	Placed 5th in Division III last year.
Georgia	Placed 6th in Division III last year.
United Arab Emirates	Withdrew from tournament last year. Last played in 2015.
Chinese Taipei	First time participating in tournament.

Match officials

5 referees and 9 linesmen were selected for the tournament.[5]

Referees Michał Baca Miha Bajt Ivan Fateyev Cemal Ersin Kaya Kim No-su

Linesmen Ferhat Aygün Christian Cristeli Illya Khokhlov Aleh Kliashcheunikau Jonas Merten Jakob Schauer Luchezar Stoyanov Gil Haim Tichon Wiktor Zień

Preliminary round

All times are local (UTC+3).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Bulgaria (H)	3	3	0	0	0	18	3	+15	9	Semifinals
2	Hong Kong	3	2	0	0	1	13	12	+1	6
3	Chinese Taipei	3	1	0	0	2	7	8	−1	3
4	Bosnia and Herzegovina[lower-alpha 1]	3	0	0	0	3	0	15	−15	0	Withdrawn

Source: IIHF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) result against closest best-ranked team outside tied teams; 6) result against second-best ranked team outside tied teams; 7) seeding before tournament.
(H) Host.
Notes:

1. Bosnia withdrew before the tournament and all games were forfeited and counted as a 5–0 win for the opposing team.[2]

10 April 2017 20:00

Bulgaria

3–0 (0–0, 2–0, 1–0)

Chinese Taipei

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 950

Game reference
	Dimitar Dimitrov	Goalies	Liao Yu-cheng Huang Sheng-chun	Referee: Miha Bajt Linesmen: Ferhat Aygün Wiktor Zień
	Dikov (Gatchev) – 21:51 1–0 M. Vasilev (Muhachev, Boyadjiev) (PP) – 38:55 2–0 Dikov (Iskrenov) – 54:42 3–0
	28 min	Penalties	18 min
	55	Shots	7

11 April 2017 20:00

Hong Kong

3–10 (2–4, 1–2, 0–4)

Bulgaria

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 800

Game reference
	King Ho Cheung Ching-ho	Goalies	Dimitar Dimitrov	Referee: Kim No-su Linesmen: Gil Tichon Wiktor Zień
	Au-yeung (Tang) – 02:01 1–0 Au-Yeung (Yeung) (PP) – 08:55 2–0 2–1 09:20 – Iskrenov (Dikov, V. Vasilev) 2–2 11:14 – M. Nikolov (Hodulov, Boyadjiev) (PP) 2–3 16:13 – Dilkov (V. Vasilev (PP) 2–4 19:08 – Iskrenov (Gatchev, Dikov) Lau (Sham, Tai) – 26:39 3–4 3–5 36:05 – Muhachev (Yotov, M. Vasilev) 3–6 39:29 – Dilkov (Gatchev) 3–7 42:44 – Yotov (Dikov, M. Vasilev) 3–8 47:34 – Muhachev (Yotov, M. Vasilev) 3–9 53:28 – Iskrenov (Mladenov, Dikov) 3–10 58:13 – Iskrenov (Dikov) (SH)
	10 min	Penalties	18 min
	13	Shots	84

13 April 2017 16:30

Chinese Taipei

2–5 (0–3, 1–1, 1–1)

Hong Kong

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 50

Game reference
	Liao Yu-cheng Huang Sheng-chun	Goalies	King Ho	Referee: Cemal Kaya Linesmen: Illya Khokhlov Aleh Kliashcheunikau
	0–1 06:13 – Au-yeung (PP) 0–2 13:34 – Kan S. (Chau) 0–3 13:59 – Ngan (Chau) Yang Hsiao-h. (Chang T., Wei Yu-k.) (PP) – 27:50 1–3 1–4 31:38 – Kan S. (Leung) Lin (Pai, Tseng) – 45:03 2–4 2–5 58:54 – Chau (SH, ENG)
	16 min	Penalties	12 min
	31	Shots	23

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Luxembourg	3	3	0	0	0	26	5	+21	9	Semifinals
2	Georgia	3	2	0	0	1	29	11	+18	6
3	South Africa	3	1	0	0	2	14	9	+5	3
4	United Arab Emirates	3	0	0	0	3	0	44	−44	0

Source: IIHF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) result against closest best-ranked team outside tied teams; 6) result against second-best ranked team outside tied teams; 7) seeding before tournament.

10 April 2017 13:00

Luxembourg

17–0 (4–0, 6–0, 7–0)

United Arab Emirates

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 50

Game reference
	Philippe Lepage	Goalies	Khaled Al Suwaidi	Referee: Michał Baca Linesmen: Aleh Kliashcheunikau Jakob Schauer
	Welter (Wambach, K. Linster) – 01:15 1–0 Mosr (Houdremont) – 04:07 2–0 K. Linster (Welter, T. Beran) (SH) – 07:01 3–0 Eriksson (R. Beran) – 11:00 4–0 R. Beran (Eriksson, Cannon) – 20:24 5–0 Wambach (Mosr) – 21:03 6–0 Cannon (R. Beran) – 22:48 7–0 R. Beran (Cannon) – 32:56 8–0 Cannon (Houdremont, Mosr) – 33:27 9–0 Houdremont (K.Linster) – 37:31 10–0 Cannon (R. Beran) – 40:15 11–0 Welter (T. Beran) (SH) – 44:41 12–0 Cannon (Eriksson, R. Beran) (PP) – 47:08 13–0 Linster (Houdremont) (PP) – 50:00 14–0 Cannon (Schons, Mossong) – 53:55 15–0 Welter (R. Beran) – 54:06 16–0 B. Linster (Mossong) – 59:20 17–0
	12 min	Penalties	12 min
	52	Shots	8

10 April 2017 16:30

South Africa

5–6 (1–1, 1–2, 3–3)

Georgia

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 100

Game reference
	Charl Pretorius	Goalies	Andrei Ilienko	Referee: Ivan Fateev Linesmen: Christian Cristeli Gil Tichon
	0–1 04:12 – Dumbadze (Kozyulin) Magmoed (Husselman) (PP) – 05:44 1–1 Valadas – 28:35 2–1 2–2 33:57 – Dumbadze (Filimonov, Shalunov) 2–3 36:06 – Shalunov (Kurbatov, Dumbadze) (PP) 2–4 42:50 – Kurbatov (Jeiranashvili) 2–5 47:43 – Filimonov (Kurbatov) (PP) Samaai (Gonsalves) (PP) – 48:35 3–5 3–6 51:52 – Kurbatov (Dumbadze, Kozyulin) (PP) Marais) – 52:09 4–6 Giot (Marais) – 55:08 5–6
	46 min	Penalties	48 min
	34	Shots	19

11 April 2017 13:00

Luxembourg

6–4 (1–1, 3–1, 2–2)

Georgia

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 50

Game reference
	Philippe Lepage	Goalies	Andrei Ilienko	Referee: Cemal Kaya Linesmen: Illya Khohlov Luchezar Stoyanov
	Schons (Cannon, R. Beran) (PP) – 13:29 1–0 1–1 19:40 – Kozyulin (Kurbatov) (PP) Eriksson (R. Beran, Cannon) – 20:31 2–1 R. Beran (Cannon) (PP) – 25:25 3–1 Cannon (R. Beran, Eriksson) – 36:39 4–1 4–2 37:35 – Shvetsov (PS) 4–3 42:07 – Shvetsov (Kozyulin) Welter (R. Beran) (PP) – 57:10 5–3 5–4 58:13 – Filimonov (Kurbatov, Shvetsov) (EA) Eriksson (ENG) – 59:09 6–4
	22 min	Penalties	48 min
	40	Shots	25

11 April 2017 16:30

United Arab Emirates

0–8 (0–1, 0–4, 0–3)

South Africa

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 50

Game reference
	Ahmed Al-Dhaheri	Goalies	Gary Bock	Referee: Michał Baca Linesmen: Ferhat Aygün Jonas Merten
	0–1 04:05 – Botha (Bremner) 0–2 26:43 – Compton (Valadas) 0–3 32:48 – Van Doesburgh (Samaai, De Jager) 0–4 33:14 – Samaai (Birrell) (PP) 0–5 38:08 – Magmoed (Birell, Botha) (PP) 0–6 49:05 – De Jager (Edwards, Husselman) 0–7 54:29 – Van Doesburgh (Botha) (SH) 0–8 58:28 – Gonsalves (SH)
	14 min	Penalties	30 min
	12	Shots	33

13 April 2017 13:00

Georgia

19–0 (9–0, 2–0, 8–0)

United Arab Emirates

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 300

Game reference
	Andrei Ilienko	Goalies	Khaled Al-Suwaidi	Referee: Miha Bajt Linesmen: Jonas Merten Jakob Schauer
	Shvetsov (Kozyulin, Dumbadze) (PP) – 04:13 1–0 Shvetsov (Filimonov) – 04:31 2–0 Shalunov (Oganeziani, Kurbatov) – 07:50 3–0 Oganeziani (Shvetsov) – 08:58 4–0 Kozyulin (Shvetsov, Filimonov) – 11:39 5–0 Filimonov (Shvetsov, Kurbatov) – 13:29 6–0 Kozyulin – 13:39 7–0 Kozyulin (Jeiranashvili) – 15:09 8–0 Shalunov (Kozyulin) – 18:25 9–0 Kurbatov (Shvetsov) (PP) – 20:36 10–0 Dumbadze (Shalunov) – 37:58 11–0 Kozyulin (Shalunov) (SH) – 49:08 12–0 Dumbadze (Kurbatov, Kozyulin) – 49:38 13–0 Kozyulin (Kurbatov, Dumbadze) – 51:24 14–0 Kurbatov (Shvetsov) – 52:57 15–0 Kozyulin (SH) – 54:53 16–0 Kozyulin (Dumbadze) – 57:40 17–0 Kozyulin (Filimonov) – 59:07 18–0 Kurbatov (Dumbadze) – 59:41 19–0
	30 min	Penalties	10 min
	63	Shots	14

13 April 2017 20:00

South Africa

1–3 (0–1, 0–0, 1–2)

Luxembourg

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 250

Game reference
	Charl Pretorius	Goalies	Gilles Mangen	Referee: Kim No-su Linesmen: Christian Cristeli Luchezar Stoyanov
	0–1 07:04 – Minden (Holtzem) Valadas (Birrell) – 50:54 1–1 1–2 56:46 – R. Beran (Cannon, Eriksson) 1–3 59:11 – Houdremont (Holtzem) (ENG)
	8 min	Penalties	18 min
	36	Shots	14

Knockout stage

Bracket

	Semifinals				Final
	15 April
	Luxembourg	8
					16 April
	Hong Kong	1
					Luxembourg	10
	15 April
					Bulgaria	4
	Bulgaria	9
	Georgia	3
					Third place
					16 April
					Hong Kong	3
					Georgia	14

5th place bracket

	5th–7th place semifinals				Fifth place
					16 April
					South Africa	7
	15 April
					Chinese Taipei	3
	Chinese Taipei	4
	United Arab Emirates	0

5th–7th place semifinal

15 April 2017 13:00

Chinese Taipei

4–0 (3–0, 0–0, 1–0)

United Arab Emirates

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 50

Game reference
	Liao Yu-cheng	Goalies	Ahmed Al-Dhaheri	Referee: Cemal Kaya Linesmen: Ferhat Aygün Luchezar Stoyanov
	Tseng (Tang Y., Chang Ha.) (PP) – 06:43 1–0 Lin (Shen, Tseng) (PP) – 10:25 2–0 Wei Yu-k. (Yang Hsiao-h.) – 12:32 3–0 Shen (Wei Yu-k.) – 46:17 4–0
	14 min	Penalties	8 min
	40	Shots	28

Semifinals

15 April 2017 16:30

Luxembourg

8–1 (3–0, 2–1, 3–0)

Hong Kong

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 250

Game reference
	Philippe Lepage	Goalies	King Ho Cheung Ching-ho	Referee: Ivan Fateyev Linesmen: Illya Khokhlov Gil Tichon
	K. Linster (R. Beran) – 02:50 1–0 Cannon (R. Beran) – 17:41 2–0 Cannon (B. Linster) – 19:59 3–0 3–1 20:11 – Au-yeung (Tang, Wong) Minden (T. Beran, Welter) – 28:19 4–1 Cannon – 29:34 5–1 R. Beran – 48:51 6–1 Wambach – 57:20 7–1 Mosr (Houdremont, Thill) – 58:07 8–1
	2 min	Penalties	2 min
	52	Shots	13

15 April 2017 20:00

Bulgaria

9–3 (4–0, 2–1, 3–2)

Georgia

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 750

Game reference
	Dimitar Dimitrov	Goalies	Andrei Ilienko	Referee: Michał Baca Linesmen: Jonas Merten Wiktor Zień
	Iskrenov (Hodulov) – 07:59 1–0 M. Vasilev (Yotov) (PP2) – 11:23 2–0 Nikolov (Hodulov) – 15:19 3–0 Cvetanov (M. Vasilev, Yotov) – 17:29 4–0 4–1 24:10 – Kozyulin (Shvetsov) (PP2) Muhachev (Dikov, Boyadjiev) (SH) – 26:38 5–1 T. Georgiev (Muhachev, Yotov) – 37:15 6–1 6–2 42:32 – Shvetsov (Kurbatov, Kozyulin) Cvetanov (Yotov, Hodulov) – 44:12 7–2 Iskrenov (Hodulov, Boyadjiev) – 50:16 8–2 Cvetanov (Gyurov, Yotov) (PP2) – 52:36 9–2 9–3 55:30 – Shvetsov (Kurbatov)
	12 min	Penalties	40 min
	64	Shots	37

Fifth place game

16 April 2017 12:30

South Africa

7–3 (3–2, 3–0, 1–1)

Chinese Taipei

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 150

Game reference
	Gary Bock Charl Pretorius	Goalies	Liao Yu-cheng Huang Sheng-chun	Referee: Kim No-su Linesmen: Jakob Schauer Luchezar Stoyanov
	Willemstijn (Van Doesburgh) – 01:05 1–0 Husselman (Birrell, Gordon) – 05:53 2–0 2–1 06:54 – Wei Yu-c. Giot (Edwards) (PP) – 18:11 3–1 3–2 19:56 – Shen (Yang Hsiao-h., Wei Yu-k.) Husselman (Giot) – 25:56 4–2 Edwards (Gordon, Husselman) – 31:56 5–2 Botha (Van Doesburgh) – 39:56 6–2 6–3 43:29 – Tang Y. (Pai) (PP) Samaai (Edwards, Gordon) – 48:22 7–3
	18 min	Penalties	8 min
	42	Shots	15

Third place game

16 April 2017 16:00

Hong Kong

3–14 (1–6, 1–3, 1–5)

Georgia

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 50

Game reference
	King Ho Cheung Ching-ho	Goalies	Andrei Ilienko Kakha Ambrolava	Referee: Miha Bajt Linesmen: Christian Cristeli Wiktor Zień
	0–1 06:13 – Dumbadze (Kozyulin) 0–2 07:51 – Kozyulin (Dumbadze, Geperidze) Sham (Tang, Au-yeung) – 08:11 1–2 1–3 10:26 – Kurbatov (Dumbadze, Filimonov) (PP) 1–4 15:12 – Shvetsov (Filimonov, Kozyulin) (PP) 1–5 18:45 – Kozyulin 1–6 19:40 – Shvetsov (Oganeziani, Filimonov) Tang (Au-yeung, Sham) (PP) – 25:56 2–6 2–7 28:28 – Shvetsov (Kurbatov, Filimonov) 2–8 31:08 – Dumbadze (Kozyulin) 2–9 32:09 – Oganeziani (Kurbatov, Shvetsov) 2–10 42:09 – Shvetsov (Filimonov) 2–11 45:44 – Shvetsov (Kozyulin, Kurbatov) (PP) 2–12 48:45 – Kozyulin (Kurbatov, Dumbadze) 2–13 50:47 – Jeiranashvili (Shalunov) Tang – 53:38 3–13 3–14 56:41 – Oganeziani (Kozyulin, Shvetsov) (PP)
	10 min	Penalties	6 min
	24	Shots	43

Final

16 April 2017 19:30

Luxembourg

10–4 (3–3, 4–1, 3–0)

Bulgaria

Winter Sports Palace, Sofia Attendance: 950

Game reference
	Philippe Lepage	Goalies	Dimitar Dimitrov Nikola Nikolov	Referee: Ivan Fateyev Linesmen: Aleh Kliashcheunikau Jonas Merten
	0–1 02:15 – M. Vasilev (Muhachev, Yotov) T. Beran (Welter) – 04:36 1–1 1–2 09:17 –Yotov (Gyurov, Muhachev) (PP) 1–3 15:15 – Iskrenov (Hodulov) Welter (Mosr) – 15:47 2–3 Schons (Scheier, R. Beran) – 18:49 3–3 K. Linster (Eriksson) (PP) – 22:48 4–3 4–4 29:39 – Yotov (Muhachev) (SH) Welter (T. Beran) – 31:34 5–4 Mosr – 37:56 6–4 Cannon (R. Beran) (PP2) – 39:53 7–4 Mosr (Schons) (PP2) – 51:06 8–4 T. Beran (Holtzem) – 52:50 9–4 R. Beran (ENG) – 56:34 10–4
	12 min	Penalties	34 min
	31	Shots	61

Final ranking

	Promoted to 2018 IIHF Division II B
	Relegation to 2018 IIHF Division III Qualification

Rank	Team
1	Luxembourg (P)
2	Bulgaria (H)
3	Georgia
4	Hong Kong
5	South Africa
6	Chinese Taipei
7	United Arab Emirates (R)

(H) Host; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated.
Source: IIHF.com

Awards and statistics

Awards

• Best players selected by the directorate:
  • Best Goaltender: Liao Yu-cheng
  • Best Defenceman: Artem Kurbatov
  • Best Forward: Robert Beran

Source: IIHF.com

Scoring leaders

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM	POS
Artem Kozyulin	5	13	12	25	+13	6	F
Ivan Shvetsov	5	11	9	20	+9	2	F
Artem Kurbatov	5	6	14	20	+16	8	D
Robert Beran	5	6	13	19	+14	8	F
Colm Cannon	5	11	6	17	+14	6	F
Vitali Dumbadze	5	6	9	15	+13	26	F
Grigory Filimonov	5	3	9	12	+6	8	F
Alexei Yotov	4	3	8	11	+5	0	F
Benny Welter	5	6	3	9	+15	0	F
Stanislav Muhachev	4	3	6	9	+4	2	F

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalties in Minutes; POS = Position
Source: IIHF.com

Goaltending leaders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list.

Player	TOI	GA	GAA	SA	Sv%	SO
Philippe Lepage	240:00	9	2.25	107	91.59	1
Liao Yu-cheng	169:59	9	3.18	103	91.26	1
Andrei Ilienko	287:28	21	4.38	169	87.57	1
King Ho	168:16	23	8.20	150	84.67	0
Ahmed Al-Dhaheri	120:00	12	6.00	73	83.56	0

TOI = Time on Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots Against; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; Sv% = Save Percentage; SO = Shutouts
Source: IIHF.com

References

1. "2017 Events". IIHF.com. 23 May 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-06-05. Retrieved 2016-05-24.
2. "Bosnia withdraws". IIHF.com. 7 April 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
3. Tchechankov, Ivan (2017-04-17). "First gold for Luxembourg". IIHF.com. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
4. 2017 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Division III
5. IIHF (2017). "Competition Officials" (PDF). IIHF.com. Retrieved 2017-04-16.