2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships – Division III

2023 IIHF U20 World Championship
Division III

Tournament details
Host country	Turkey
City	Istanbul
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Dates	26 January – 2 February 2023
Teams	8
Tournament statistics
Games played	22
Goals scored	207 (9.41 per game)
Attendance	5,182 (236 per game)
Scoring leader(s)	Dmitri Kuleshov (29 points)
Official website
www.iihf.com

See also: 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

The 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship Division III was an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Division III represents the sixth and the lowest tier of the IIHF World Junior Championship. The tournament was played in Istanbul, Turkey, from 26 January to 2 February 2023. It consisted of one pool of eight teams separated into two preliminary round groups. The winners of this tournament, Australia, were promoted to the 2024 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship Division II B.

To be eligible as a junior player in this tournament, a player cannot be born earlier than 2003.

Participating teams

Team	Qualification
Australia	Placed 3rd in Division III last year.
Israel	Placed 4th in Division III last year.
Turkey	Hosts; placed 5th in Division III last year.
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Placed 6th in Division III last year.
Kyrgyzstan	Placed 7th in Division III last year.
South Africa	Placed 8th in Division III last year.
Bulgaria	Returned to World Championship for first time since 2020.
New Zealand	Returned to World Championship for first time since 2020.

Match officials

Five referees and ten linesmen were selected for the tournament.

Referees

• Nicholas Air
• Murat Aygun
• Bostjan Groznik
• Yen-Chin Shen
• Chris van Grinsven

Linesmen

• Berkay Aslanbey
• Ferhat Dogus Aygun
• Thibo Christiaens
• Yunjie Cui
• John Dow
• Taha Kavlakoglu
• Aron Magyar
• Sem Ramirez
• Kaspars Sirins
• Chun Hang Wong

First round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	3	3	0	0	0	28	6	+22	9	Advance to Quarterfinals
2	Kyrgyzstan	3	2	0	0	1	11	16	−5	6
3	New Zealand	3	1	0	0	2	9	10	−1	3
4	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	0	0	0	3	4	20	−16	0

Source: IIHF

26 January 2023 10:00

Australia

12–4 (3–1, 3–1, 6–2)

Kyrgyzstan

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

26 January 2023 17:00

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1–6 (0–2, 0–3, 1–1)

New Zealand

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

27 January 2023 10:00

Bosnia and Herzegovina

3–4 (1–1, 1–2, 1–1)

Kyrgyzstan

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

27 January 2023 17:00

New Zealand

2–6 (0–3, 1–3, 1–0)

Australia

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

29 January 2023 10:00

Australia

10–0 (1–0, 6–0, 3–0)

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

29 January 2023 17:00

Kyrgyzstan

3–1 (1–1, 1–0, 1–0)

New Zealand

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Israel	3	3	0	0	0	30	4	+26	9	Advance to Quarterfinals
2	Bulgaria	3	2	0	0	1	10	11	−1	6
3	Turkey (H)	3	1	0	0	2	15	14	+1	3
4	South Africa	3	0	0	0	3	4	30	−26	0

Source: IIHF
(H) Host

26 January 2023 13:30

Israel

16–1 (4–0, 8–1, 4–0)

South Africa

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

26 January 2023 20:30

Turkey

3–5 (1–0, 1–2, 1–3)

Bulgaria

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

27 January 2023 13:30

Bulgaria

0–8 (0–5, 0–1, 0–2)

Israel

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

27 January 2023 20:30

Turkey

9–3 (4–2, 1–0, 4–1)

South Africa

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

29 January 2023 13:30

South Africa

0–5 (0–1, 0–3, 0–1)

Bulgaria

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

29 January 2023 20:30

Israel

6–3 (5–0, 1–2, 0–1)

Turkey

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

Playoffs

All teams enter the Quarterfinals; Semifinals are to be re-seeded.

	Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Final
	30 January
	A1 Australia	28
					1 February
	B4 South Africa	0
					1 Israel	6
	30 January
					5 Turkey	4
	B1 Israel	10
									2 February
	A4 Bosnia and Herzegovina	0
									1 Israel	1
	30 January
									2 Australia	4
	A2 Kyrgyzstan	1
					1 February
	B3 Turkey	3
					2 Australia	4
	30 January
					3 Bulgaria	1			3rd place match
	B2 Bulgaria	6
									2 February
	A3 New Zealand	2
									3 Bulgaria	8
									5 Turkey	3

	7th place match
	1 February
	7	Bosnia and Herzegovina	7
	8	South Africa	3

	5th place match
	2 February
	4	Kyrgyzstan	2
	6	New Zealand	3

Quarterfinals

January 30, 2023 10:00

Australia

28–0 (5–0, 11–0, 12–0)

South Africa

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

January 30, 2023 13:30

Bulgaria

6–2 (3–1, 1–0, 2–1)

New Zealand

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

January 30, 2023 17:00

Israel

10–0 (4–0, 3–0, 3–0)

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

January 30, 2023 20:30

Kyrgyzstan

1–3 (1–2, 0–0, 0–1)

Turkey

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

Semifinals

1 February 2023 17:00

Australia

4–1 (1–0, 1–0, 2–1)

Bulgaria

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

1 February 2023 20:30

Israel

6–4 (1–1, 3–1, 2–2)

Turkey

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

7th place match

1 February 2023 13:30

Bosnia and Herzegovina

7–3 (6–0, 1–1, 0–2)

South Africa

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

5th place match

2 February 2023 13:30

Kyrgyzstan

2–3 (1–0, 0–0, 1–3)

New Zealand

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

3rd place match

2 February 2023 17:00

Bulgaria

8–3 (3–1, 3–2, 2–0)

Turkey

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

Final

2 February 2023 20:30

Israel

1–4 (0–0, 0–2, 1–2)

Australia

Zeytinburnu Ice Rink, Istanbul

Game reference

Final standings

Rank	Team
	Australia
	Israel
	Bulgaria
4	Turkey
5	New Zealand
6	Kyrgyzstan
7	Bosnia and Herzegovina
8	South Africa

Promoted to the 2024 Division II B

Relegated to the 2024 Division III B

External links

• Official website of IIHF