WJC: 2018 Division I, II, III

[filip85]

Medvescak should play more juniors, or at least give them a taste of the lesgue.

There is simply no U20 players rather than Fičur who are good enough to even practice with EBEL team. This is croatian reallity and until some big changes doesn't appears it will be even worse. Every upcoming generation is worse and worse. U18 will stay this year in D2B, they are still good enough to beat Iceland, but already next year both U20 and U18 (especially) will be in relegation danger.

 

[HungryFrank]

Medvescak should play more juniors, or at least give them a taste of the lesgue.

EBEL in general should be a lot more strict about homegrown players, too many foreign players play there.
When we talk about Medveščak, I don't think that there is any real talent in current juniors, 95,96 generation had some potential but they didn't develop it.
Guess there is some kind of an arrangement where hockey federation stays silent while they hand out passports and Medveščak pretends to be blind to all the negligence at hockey player development. Both win that way.
For Croatian players, obviously, only way to develop is playing abroad and I really wonder why did they stop going abroad in big numbers; did they totally kill their mood for playing real hockey or no one can afford it?

Anyway, everyone at D2B level this year seems pretty bad, probably Serbia has the biggest chances with the best schedule upcoming, but whoever gets up will bounce back down hard next year.

 

[crobro]

I check out the iihf live stream every year

Why?

 

[filip85]

I check out the iihf live stream every year

Why?

Then I don't know how you get to the conclusion that Ficur looks great.

 

[ZT]

U20 WC Division II Group B

Spain is promoted to the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division II Group A
Turkey is relegated to the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III

FINAL STANDINGS:

RANK	TEAM​	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GDF	GF:GA	PTS
1​	SPAIN​	5​	4​	1​	0​	0​	+18​	26:8​	14​
2​	SERBIA​	5​	4​	0​	1​	0​	+10​	22:12​	13​
3​	CROATIA​	5​	3​	0​	0​	2​	+5​	16:11​	9​
4​	BELGIUM​	5​	1​	0​	0​	4​	-6​	22:28​	3​
5​	MEXICO​	5​	1​	0​	0​	4​	-10​	12:22​	3​
6​	TURKEY​	5​	1​	0​	0​	4​	-17​	13:30​	3​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

SCORING LEADERS:

Rank​	Name​	Team​	Pos​	GP​	G​	A​	PTS​
1​	VUKICEVIC Luka​	SRB​	F​	5​	8​	4​	12​
2​	DJUMIC Mirko​	SRB​	F​	5​	3​	8​	11​
3​	CERDA Joan​	ESP​	F​	5​	5​	5​	10​
4​	DONATH Dorian​	ESP​	F​	5​	5​	3​	8​
5​	DHONDT Rino​	BEL​	F​	5​	4​	4​	8​
6​	de CROOCK Oliver​	BEL​	F​	5​	3​	4​	7​
6​	FICUR Bruno​	CRO​	F​	5​	3​	4​	7​
8​	COOLEN Ben​	BEL​	F​	5​	3​	3​	6​
8​	PEREZ Jorge​	MEX​	F​	5​	3​	3​	6​
10​	KARS Yusuf​	TUR​	D​	5​	1​	5​	6​
10​	SUBOTIC Srdjan​	SRB​	F​	5​	1​	5​	6​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

GOALKEEPERS (SVS %) :

Rank​	Name ​	Team​	GP​	GAA​	SV %​	SO​
1​	NIKOLIC Vito​	CRO​	4​	2.01​	92.98​	0​
2​	BARBO Raul​	ESP​	5​	1.57​	90.12​	1​
3​	GARCIA del VALLE Gerardo​	MEX​	4​	4.53​	89.71​	0​
4​	MITIC Jug​	SRB​	5​	2.36​	89.19​	0​
5​	KAYA Onurcan​	TUR​	5​	5.98​	85.87​	0​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

BEST PLAYERS SELECTED BY THE DIRECTORATE:

Award​	Name​	Team​
Best Goalkeeper​	BARBO Raul​	ESP​
Best Defenceman​	KRAMARIC Luka​	CRO​
Best Forward​	VUKICEVIC Luka​	SRB​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

​

 

[HungryFrank]

D3 U20 upcoming, it will be interesting to see what China has to offer, did their hockey expansion really happen or is it only on paper. Playing (or even training) in russian MHL or NA leagues should reflect on this level.

Australia is playing without Bronte so I guess China should get promoted?

 

[kaiser matias]

Division III has began in Bulgaria:

The first set of games had Australia beat Iceland in OT, Israel beat China, and Bulgaria beat New Zealand.

Probably biggest surprise is Israel beating China, though of course this is only the first game, so will have to see where everything ends up.

The last tournament, the Div III Qualification (which is a new concept due to the addition of Turkmenistan), starts February 5, and will have 3 teams.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Australia is playing without Bronte so I guess China should get promoted?

They lost to Israel, so that might be a no.

 

[kabidjan18]

Curious why China was seen as the favorite. They acquired new teams but that doesn't create new and improved players.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

And China's just lost to Iceland, so I guess it's about avoiding relegation now.

 

[Urbanskog]

Curious why China was seen as the favorite. They acquired new teams but that doesn't create new and improved players.

Because they just barely missed out on promotion last year and have been an elevator team for years? They certainly weren't expected to suddenly be worse this year with the MHL program.

 

[kabidjan18]

Because they just barely missed out on promotion last year and have been an elevator team for years? They certainly weren't expected to suddenly be worse this year with the MHL program.

Ah, fair point. For some reason I had the impression they lost their star NHL draft prospect but evidently not.

 

[MeHateHe]

The Division III championships will wrap up Sunday in Sofia. Israel's win over Iceland this morning secured promotion to Div IIB, where they'll join Serbia, Croatia, Belgium, Mexico and the Netherlands next year.
At the bottom of the pool, New Zealand has completely lost the plot, having given up 24 goals in their last two losses to Iceland and China. They are stuck at 0 points with just a game against Israel Sunday remaining. There is a Div III qualification tournament (this year's set for February in South Africa), so if recent history continues, New Zealand is likely bound there, although the IIHF has also structured the Div III tournament around seven and eight teams.

 

[filip85]

Seems like Bronte loss was simply too much for Australia.

 

[kaiser matias]

Impressive for Israel to win promotion. This is only their third year with a U20 tea (they did play back in 1997 as well, but then took a nearly two decade hiatus), so this could be a good sign for them.

Also impressed with Axel Orongan of Iceland. He's 16 and in the top ten in scoring, which means he's got 3 more years at this tournament ahead of him, and if he stays playing in Sweden (he's currently in a low-level junior league), he could possibly help Iceland out, maybe even earn a promotion one year if they're lucky.

Overall good to see parity at this level, with the teams mostly at the same level. Shows that it is developing in these places, and should continue to do so. Also hope that enough sign up again for a Div III Qualification tournament again, as more teams is always good.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

And without David Levin.

 

[kaiser matias]

And without David Levin.

He would just be wasting his time at this level, so there's really no reason for him to come join them. Though he is proof that the Israeli program is slowly starting to do something; like this article the IIHF published on Israel's promotion, they are having more players go abroad, and seeing someone like Levin perform like this will only help further Israeli hockey.

 

[HungryFrank]

He would just be wasting his time at this level, so there's really no reason for him to come join them. Though he is proof that the Israeli program is slowly starting to do something; like this article the IIHF published on Israel's promotion, they are having more players go abroad, and seeing someone like Levin perform like this will only help further Israeli hockey.

key to moving forward through D2 and D3.

I expected China to win, and they seemed to be dominant on every game I watched, but they needed better goaltending to support it. Anyway, deserved promotion for Israel!