WC: 2019 Division I, II, III

[Pardus]

Serbia - China 6:5

China from 2-5 to 6-5...

And they were supposed to be better this year. C'mon Dragons!

 

[HungryFrank]

for anybody having trouble with opening stats.iihf.com:

- 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship
- 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Div I Group A
- 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Div I Group B

 

[ZT]

China from 2-5 to 6-5...

And they were supposed to be better this year. C'mon Dragons!

Similiar thing happened today.
If Belgium wins against Serbia, China will be relegated to D2B.

 

[member 305909]

These lower division tournaments are fun to follow but at the same time they reveal what a minor sport hockey really is in the global sense.

 

[filip85]

These lower division tournaments are fun to follow but at the same time they reveal what a minor sport hockey really is in the global sense.

I am pretty hardcore realist, but given how expensive ice hockey is in terms of infrastructure and maintaining of it plus equipment to play it, I would say ice hockey is doing just fine.

 

[ZT]

Today's results:

China - Australia 2:3
Spain - Croatia 3:4/SO
Belgium - Serbia 3:6

Current standings:

1. Australia - 10 pts
2. Serbia - 9 pts
3. Croatia - 8 pts
4. Spain - 7 pts
5. Belgium - 2 pts
6. China - 0 pts

 

[crobro]

Question

Was Gilbert Brulé eligible to play for Croatia the last few years?

 

[jonas2244]

Why should he? He played for Canada at the Olympics 2018.

 

[SoundAndFury]

He hasn't played in Croatia for 2 years either so he isn't eligible in any case.

 

[jonas2244]

Tough one for Australia. Loosing the game due to a SH-goal and having the possibility to play nearly 2 minutes 5-3 in the last moments of the game.
Now Serbia can go for Promotion with at least 2 points vs. Spain. Otherwise Croatia is going to Div IB.

 

[filip85]

Otherwise Croatia is going to Div IB.

Which hopefully won't happen. We don't have quality for D1B. Better to stay here...

 

[ZT]

Which hopefully won't happen. We don't have quality for D1B. Better to stay here...

And Serbia has quality? This is probably their strongest possible roster, which is not the case with Croatia.

 

[Pardus]

After all China did survive. Congrats!

Gotta though do better than that next year.

 

[ZT]

Today's results:

Croatia - Australia 2:1
China - Belgium 4:0
Serbia - Spain 3:2/SO

FINAL RANKING:

1. Serbia - 11 pts - PROMOTED
2. Croatia - 11 pts
3. Australia - 10 pts
4. Spain - 8 pts
5. China - 3 pts
6. Belgium - 2 pts - RELEGATED

 

[Eye of Ra]

good lord, imagine if croatia and serbia where combined (yugoslavia), they would be so good...

 

[swissexpert]

good lord, imagine if croatia and serbia where combined (yugoslavia), they would be so good...

Ehm....no?!
Would be Croatia with a few Serbian exchanges and Div 1B would still be their highest level possible.

 

[ozo]

Ehm....no?!
Would be Croatia with a few Serbian exchanges and Div 1B would still be their highest level possible.

Or if we take it a half seriosuly, it would be all-Slovenian Yogoslavia team + Rendulic.

 

[filip85]

Congrats to Serbia. Croatian downfall continues and will continue in the future. Our juniors are worse and worse every year, just look at results of our three U12 teams in slovenian league (IHL - Mlajši dečki U12 18/19 - Lestvica tekmovanja | Hokejska zveza Slovenije).

I would say we still have four-five years in D2A where we will fight for 1st or 2nd place, after that it will be matter of time before we get relegated to D2B.

 

[ZT]

Robar, Muršak and Mušič retired from NT.
Urbas, Pavlin and Jeglič are injured. They're not going to play at the upcoming WC.

 

[kaiser matias]

Division IIB starts today, while Division III starts on Monday.

Also going to use this time to gripe about the IIHF app. It has the days for the tournaments moved up a day: Div IIB for example is listed as starting April 20, and ending April 26, while the real days are April 21-27. Just another thing that they have somehow messed up recently.

 

[ZT]

Israel - Iceland 3:1
2nd period underway.

Not looking good for Iceland.

 

[kaiser matias]

Thought I'd mention the Georgian team has been in Chicago the last week training, courtesy of a local who hosted them. Hopefully that helps their chances here, though in talking to the federation they aren't expecting much this year. They are going to have a team in the Emirates league starting this year though, and are working in building arenas in Georgia, so see what happens in the future. Big issue of course is money, and their lack of any.

 

[kaiser matias]

Games on are Youtube. The channel SFN Sports Fan Network has English commentary, though one of the guys is Mexican and keeps using Spanish as well.

Update: Of course right after I post this it goes down. Not sure what's going on, but they did have the Israel-Iceland game earlier, and the first period of this game. Hopefully it gets sorted out.

Update on update: Seems to be fixed for now.

Always neat to have English commentary for these levels. I remember a few years ago in South Africa they did it, had a Canadian guy and a South African women's player do it. They were obviously not top tier, but recognised it and had a lot of fun, which was great.

 

[ZT]

DIVISION II GROUP B
Round 1 results:

Israel - Iceland 6:3
Georgia - DPR Korea 4:9
New Zealand - Mexico 7:2

Current standings:

1. DPR Korea - 3 pts
2. New Zealand - 3 pts
3. Israel - 3 pts
4. Iceland - 0 pts
5. Georgia - 0 pts
6. Mexico - 0 pts

 

[ZT]

DIVISION III
Round 1 results:

Turkey - Luxembourg 2:3
Turkmenistan - Chinese Taipei 4:5/OT
Bulgaria - South Africa 12:2

Current standings:

1. Bulgaria - 3 pts
2. Luxembourg - 3 pts
3. Chinese Taipei - 2 pts
4. Turkmenistan - 1 pt
5. Turkey - 0 pts
6. South Africa - 0 pts