WC: 2023 IIHF World Championship Division III, Group A and B

[Eye of Ra]

Group B starts soon. The tournament will be held in Saravejo, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 27 February to 5 March 2023.

Pos
1	Hong Kong	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Promotion to the 2024 Division IIII A
2	Kyrgyzstan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Bosnia and Herzegovina (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Iran	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Malaysia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Singapore	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Relegation to the 2024 Division IV

Should be a battle beetween Kyrgzstan and Bosnia.

Click to read more...

 

[Albatros]

Bosnia will need all of that home ice advantage, that's for sure.

 

[Faterson]

This is like the Jamaica bobsleigh team, times six.

 

[aquaregia]

That one season where they failed to get proper documentation for those Russian ringers is still keeping Kyrgyzstan below their level I see.
Wouldn't be surprised to see them putting multiple double digit scores on this lot. Bosnians will more likely be scrapping with Hong Kong for silver in the group - I wonder if they'll have a 50- and 16-year old both on the ice at the same time as they did last year?

 

[Lartsaman]

Anyone knows if this tournament is held at the same arena as the 1984 olympic hockey?

 

[Albatros]

Anyone knows if this tournament is held at the same arena as the 1984 olympic hockey?

It was a secondary venue for hockey in 1984, yes.

 

[Hamilton Bulldogs]

Can’t wait till Russia gets in these tournaments

 

[Lambo]

Iran? I m very surprised! I m waiting for Brazil. I still believe!

 

[crobro]

I wonder how many naturalized players per team plus beer leaguers from North America will be representing their parents countries

 

[aquaregia]

I wonder how many naturalized players per team plus beer leaguers from North America will be representing their parents countries

At 3B level, hardly any it seems.

That 50-year old (now 51) player/coach from Bosnia who I mentioned earlier I am glad to say is back. Guy called Anthony London who worked for a few charities in Bosnia before joining their league at the age of 39, having played virtually no organised hockey since university, and quickly became one of their league's best players.
Signapore also has a 43-year-old naturalised American defenceman on their roster, who appears to have started playing hockey in Singapore after moving there to set up his business.

Haven't checked out all the rosters, but that'll probably be the main story for any other players for NA who turn up there - ex college players who didn't make it pro and whose work outside hockey took them there.

 

[Lartsaman]

It was a secondary venue for hockey in 1984, yes.

Wow. That arena saw the Red Machine back then, now the likes of Iran and Kyrgyzstan

 

[Albatros]

Wow. That arena saw the Red Machine back then, now the likes of Iran and Kyrgyzstan

Not false, but also then the USSR only played against the Yugoslav hosts there. So in a sense the match between Bosnia and Kyrgyzstan is well in that tradition. The Yugoslav team was almost all-Slovene, of course, but there was one Bosnian-born member in Mustafa Bešić.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Seems like Malasyia thinks having Ds is not important.

DEFENSEMEN
	#6		Mohd Hariz Ananda (D)	23	2000	Kuala Lumpur, MAS	186	83	R
	#21		Juan Jie Goh (D)	18	2004	176	75	R
FORWARDS
	#16		Mohd Hafis Anjam (F)	31	1991	Sabah, MAS	165	53	R
	#9		Andika Rees Azhar (F)	20	2002	Kuala Lumpur, MAS	175	58	R
	#11		Muhammad Azman (F)	26	1996	170	65	L
	#7		Amir Faris Azra (F)	17	2005	174	80	R
	#10		Ju Hong Low (F)	19	2004	167	60	R
	#15		Aiman Zul Rafiq Mohd Fadzul (F)	25	1997	Kajang, MAS	168	64	R
	#18		Muhammad Fareez Mohd Fauzi (F)	19	2003	176	64	R
	#14		Aisar Muhd Fadzli (F)	17	2005	172	64	R
	#4		Harith Noor (F)	18	2004	178	62	R
	#23		Timothy Ong (F)	19	2003	168	55	R
	#19		Arif Raja Amin (F)	18	2004	Kuala Lumpur, MAS	180	60	R
	#24		Karim Raja Amin (F)	21	2002	Johor Bahru, MAS	183	70	R
	#5		Khia Peng Tan (F)	43	1979	175	70	R
	#13		Xuen Yeah Tee (F)	19	2003	175	70	R
	#8		Nurul Badrul Arie Versluis (F)	26	1996	181	87	R
	#12		Nurul Nizam Versluis (F)	23	1999	183	75	R

 

[MeHateHe]

Group B starts soon. The tournament will be held in Saravejo, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 27 February to 5 March 2023.

Pos
1	Hong Kong	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Promotion to the 2024 Division IIII A
2	Kyrgyzstan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Bosnia and Herzegovina (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Iran	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Malaysia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Singapore	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Relegation to the 2024 Division IV

Should be a battle beetween Kyrgzstan and Bosnia.

Four of the six teams have Russian coaches and a fifth has an almost entirely Canadian coaching contingent. Only Malaysia has a homegrown coaching squad. It's not unusual for the minnows to bring in foreign coaches, but it's a bit out of the ordinary to have all the teams with foreign coaches.

FTR, I love these tournaments. Bad hockey and all, I love watching these teams kind of feeling their way out in international hockey.

 

[jcbio11]

It's cool seeing Hong Kong with their own national team.

 

[Hallzy]

Four of the six teams have Russian coaches and a fifth has an almost entirely Canadian coaching contingent. Only Malaysia has a homegrown coaching squad. It's not unusual for the minnows to bring in foreign coaches, but it's a bit out of the ordinary to have all the teams with foreign coaches.

FTR, I love these tournaments. Bad hockey and all, I love watching these teams kind of feeling their way out in international hockey.

I haven't been able to find any streams for this tournament even on IIHF - do you know if it is even being filmed?

 

[MeHateHe]

I haven't been able to find any streams for this tournament even on IIHF - do you know if it is even being filmed?

If streams are available, IIHF usually posts them. I haven't seen them either.

 

[koyvoo]

MALAYSIA VS IRAN, 2023 IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION III GROUP B, SARAJEVO

www.youtube.com

 

[MeHateHe]

MALAYSIA VS IRAN, 2023 IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION III GROUP B, SARAJEVO

www.youtube.com

Thanks for this

 

[aquaregia]

Kyrgyzstan 14-2 Singapore
Malaysia 4-14 Iran
Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-5 (SO) Hong Kong

Following two games with classic lower division international scorelines, the Bosnians put in a huge effort from 3-5 down with 7 minutes to go to get a shootout win over Hong Kong, having lost the same fixture 0-7 four years ago. Almost certainly Kyrgyzstan will still be more than a match for them, but really positive progress for the home side (also shown by a couple of the team's young forwards playing in the lower leagues of Sweden rather than staying at home for domestic hockey).
Fittingly, the game-winning shot is put away by 51-year-old Canadian expat Anthony London, continuing his efforts to champion the game in his adopted country both on the ice and off.

 

[aquaregia]

Singapore 10-0 Malaysia
Hong Kong 11-1 Iran
Kyrgyzstan 10-1 Bosnia-Herzegovina

Malaysia's relegation to Division IV already looks an inevitability as they were steamrolled by Singapore. Division II U.S. (though Singapore-born) college player Ethan Redden continues his grudge against his rivals from across the Straits of Johor with four goals to follow up his hat-trick against them last year.
Iran looked like they might make their fixture against Iran competitive for about ten minutes before the superior stick-handling and attacking shape of Hong Kong began to tell. The Iranians were able to challenge their opponents physically, but frustration got the better of them when their plan of 'skate in a straight line, crash the net and just slam the puck at the goalie as hard as possible' failed to bear any fruit, and Hong Kong repeatedly cut through their vacant middle-ice.

As expected, Kyrgyzstan also made short work of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Central Asians' skating skills continue to be a cut above anyone else in their division, and they should be aiming for back-to-back promotions once they end up in III A. On the Bosnian side, Mirza Omer can at least be pleased with getting himself on the scoresheet after taking a nasty knee to the chest from his opponent Kirill Kim (that saw him ejected) in the second period. That said, all of their opponents (bar Malaysia) can say they've made some improvements so far with their teams, particularly no shame for those that are still pretty new to IIHF-organised international hockey.

 

[aquaregia]

Hong Kong 7-6 (OT) Singapore
Kyrgyzstan 22-0 Malaysia
Bosnia-Herzegovina 9-2 Iran

Great performance by Singapore when compared to last years' showings, and they'll be a little disappointed to have an upset victory snatched from under them by Hong Kong, who they had the better of for large parts. Panicky defending did for them in the end as they lost the lead twice in the final three minutes before Ryan Chu zipped a scorcher of a shot from the left face-off circle to win it in the first minute of overtime.

Kyrgyzstan's encounter with Malaysia much resembled a sixty-minute powerplay drill, despite the Malaysians not conceding any penalties; even an experienced hockey watcher may have taken a while to realise they were actually playing with five skaters. The White Hawks clocked up the exact same tally of goals as they managed in the same match-up last year, and they'll be slightly disappointed not to have bettered it having reached that mark with over seven minutes to go.

Iran's energy was again impressive, and deserved their first-period parity with the Bosnians as they ruffled the feathers of their technically superior opponents. Again though they couldn't keep their discipline up for the full stretch, and their shape got more ragged as the game wore on - the successive Bosnia breakaway goals in the third were particularly telling. Chalk it up to a lack of experience and fitness I guess; I like their attitude to the game and hope to see them improve as the team plays more international hockey.

 

[Hallzy]

Hong Kong 7-6 (OT) Singapore
Kyrgyzstan 22-0 Malaysia
Bosnia-Herzegovina 9-2 Iran

Great performance by Singapore when compared to last years' showings, and they'll be a little disappointed to have an upset victory snatched from under them by Hong Kong, who they had the better of for large parts. Panicky defending did for them in the end as they lost the lead twice in the final three minutes before Ryan Chu zipped a scorcher of a shot from the left face-off circle to win it in the first minute of overtime.

Kyrgyzstan's encounter with Malaysia much resembled a sixty-minute powerplay drill, despite the Malaysians not conceding any penalties; even an experienced hockey watcher may have taken a while to realise they were actually playing with five skaters. The White Hawks clocked up the exact same tally of goals as they managed in the same match-up last year, and they'll be slightly disappointed not to have bettered it having reached that mark with over seven minutes to go.

Iran's energy was again impressive, and deserved their first-period parity with the Bosnians as they ruffled the feathers of their technically superior opponents. Again though they couldn't keep their discipline up for the full stretch, and their shape got more ragged as the game wore on - the successive Bosnia breakaway goals in the third were particularly telling. Chalk it up to a lack of experience and fitness I guess; I like their attitude to the game and hope to see them improve as the team plays more international hockey.

I appreciate these updates, I've been trying to catch as many of these games as I can. Although the hockey is subpar quality wise its interesting to watch these developing countries.

 

[MeHateHe]

Just watching the Kyrgyzstan/Iran stream. It's 10-0 for Kyrgyzstan midway through the second, and looks like Kyrgyzstan is operating at half-speed.

Reminds me of a Universiade in the 80s when Canada was sending its CIAU champions. University of Alberta was there, playing against South Korea. By the middle of the second, Clare Drake told his players that they weren't allowed to shoot on goal until all five skaters had touched the puck once inside the attacking zone. They still hung 20+ on Korea.

 

[aquaregia]

I appreciate these updates, I've been trying to catch as many of these games as I can. Although the hockey is subpar quality wise its interesting to watch these developing countries.

Glad you're finding them useful!

And yeah this Iran game is really disappointing, didn't expect them to get close to winning but the spirit that I've admired from them so far is just completely lacking, they look like they're running on empty.
Their second goalkeeper's also having an absolute mare, he's been in for less than six minutes but he's let in six of the 11 goals so far for a sub-50% Save ratio and around a 65 GAA!