U18: IIHF U18 Division IIB

[MeHateHe]

The Division IIB tournament started up Monday in Sofia, with Netherlands, China, Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, Belgium and Australia. The Dutch and Chinese got off to the best starts, each posting wins in their first two games - Netherlands over Australia 6-1 and Chinese Taipei 8-1 and China over Bulgaria 5-1 and Australia 5-2.

Streams from the tournament are available with an account here: https://iihf.livearenasports.com/en/home

There are a few interesting notes about some of the team rosters. Most of the teams have at least a few players attached to clubs in more prominent hockey playing countries like Sweden, the US and Canada. None of China's players have clubs listed, which is odd, and I don't feel like spending my day on Elite Prospects trying to track them all down. Perhaps if insomnia strikes I'll change my mind. Australia brought a 14-year-old to the tournament: Ruben Nalos, who's listed as 5'3 (1.59m) and 97 pounds (44kg). And he's a defender. Tiny. They've also got a couple of 2007 borns on the roster. They're continuing a growing tradition of developing players outside of Australia - players on the team are attached to clubs in Sweden, Czechia and Canada.

The tournament has been heavy on the penalties already. In the first six games there have been seven game misconducts and a match penalty - and all to the Chinese and Australian teams. The China/Netherlands game had 187 minutes in penalties alone. They had a bit of a donnybrook in the Chinese end in the first period, with a couple of fights. Whoever was operating the camera shifted it to the middle of the ice just as things got interesting. Wildly, the Australia goalie looked like he was ready to come down to assist, since the Chinese goalie was poking his nose around the scraps. China was a man down when the stuff happened.

I'd have to think the Dutch are odds-on favourites to win this. But it likely comes down to the last game of the tournament, on Sunday, between Netherlands and China. Winner moves up to Div IIA. Belgium and Australia - who also play on the last day - are likely battling to stay up in this division.

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[Albatros]

None of China's players have clubs listed, which is odd, and I don't feel like spending my day on Elite Prospects trying to track them all down.

Well, there are no hockey leagues in China so you don’t really need a club besides the national team if you're not playing abroad.

 

[ozo]

China doesn't get promoted after all after losing to Netherlands in the decider. That kinda confirms my suspicions that there is no KHL team inspired hockey boom going on in China. Small boost they got from exporting couple dozen kids abroad before pandemic is the height of their achievements. Even if last couple of age groups of players are somewhat better than they have been historically, all these kids will still be forgotten because Chinese hockey heads are completely fine with naturalizing hordes of foreigners for senior national team.

 

[MeHateHe]

What a wild tournament.

Netherlands wins the tournament with a 3-2 victory over China on the last day, scoring a power play goal with less than five minutes to play. China gets the silver and Chinese Taipei the bronze. Bulgaria, Australia and Belgium round out the field.

Looking past the standings is where you find how unusual this tournament was, though. In 15 games, there were nine major penalties with automatic game misconducts plus three match penalties, including one for kicking, and a game misconduct handed out to one of the Chinese players for chucking his stick into the crowd after the final buzzer in the last game. As a refereeing nerd, I usually go through the game footage to see if the penalties are warranted. Typically, there are referees who seem a touch unprepared for the level of play and overreact to bad results, but I agreed with every call that was made. I've never seen such a chippy tournament at this level. It must be said that five of the worst offenders were from China and three from Australia. Aside from the kicking call - a very good call from the referee - the worst was an unconscionable high hit from one of the Dutch players on the last day that rightfully earned a major plus a game misconduct (for charging, which was the wrong call, but right result).

It was also a tournament where all six teams were more or less on the same level of play. There were a couple games where the score was fairly disparate - Netherlands beat Chinese Taipei 8-1 - but most of the games were very close. Belgium finished at 0-5, but they outshot their opponents in four of their five games, including the one they were shutout of by Bulgaria, and only outshot by China 24-22.

As I said, though, fun tournament to watch. I would love to go to one of these tournaments just for the experience someday.