U18: U18 Division IIIA and IIIB tournaments

[MeHateHe]

The IIHF men's U18 tournament schedule opens this weekend with the Division IIIB tournament having started today, and the Division IIIA tournament starting on Sunday.

The Division IIIB tournament is in Bangkok, with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg, South Africa, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, along with the hosts Thailand.

All the games are live streamed, and archived, at this link:



The hockey is not good, by a classical definition of the word. These are countries pretty far down in the hockey world's depth chart. Luxembourg is carrying a 14-year-old goaltender, but it's a tiny country with a small hockey infrastructure, so what can you expect. One of South Africa's players plays for Notre Dame's U17 team in Saskatchewan - he also played on their U20 team earlier this season.

The tournament marks an expansion to the U18 division, as only four teams were in the Division IIIB tournament last year.

The opening day was pretty successful for the host Thais, as they put the boots to Bosnia and Herzegovina 14-0. Uzbekistan, with a 12-0 plastering of South Africa, and Turkmenistan, who beat Luxembourg 8-2, were also winners on day 1. Sultanhamit Vahitov had six goals and an assist in that win for Turkmenistan.

The U18 DIvision IIIA tournament begins Sunday in Mexico City, and features Hong Kong, Iceland, Turkiye, Israel, New Zealand and the host Mexico. I'll post links to streams if they appear.

Click to read more...

 

[ozo]

Shoutout to songs generated by AI being blasted at every stoppage and on an infinite loop during intermissions. Hilarious But someone bothered to put in the effort, so kudos for that.

Enjoy the song - link

 

[ozo]

On serious note, Uzbekistan is making their debut and their team is pretty serious, team core playing in, for this level, non-terrible Kazakh U20 league and it shows. Uzbekistan vs Thailand will be a nice decider in this group.

 

[PanniniClaus]

A week in Bangkok and the world's your oyster.

 

[MeHateHe]

A week in Bangkok and the world's your oyster.

One night. It's a show with everything but Yul Brynner.

 

[MeHateHe]

Day two of the U18 Division IIIB championship is complete and as the poster above noted, it looks like Uzbekistan will be the class of this group. Along with Thailand, the Uzbeks are at the top of the table after thumping Luxembourg 12-1 Thailand kept pace with a 4-3 win over Turkmenistan while Bosnia and Herzegovina got on the win column by edging South Africa 4-3.

The Thailand-Turkmenistan contest featured two wholly undeserved game misconducts in the first period. A Thailand player got thrown out for a fairly thunderous but clean shoulder-to shoulder hit three minutes in, and nine minutes later a Turkmenistan player was ejected for kicking - on a play that looked like a run-of-the-mill trip. The IIIB tournament resumes Monday.

 

[MeHateHe]

The U18 Division IIIB tournament continued today, and as expected we are headed to a showdown between Thailand and Uzbekistan to decide this group, and both front-runners came away with big wins on day 3.

Uzbekistan won the battle of the stans, beating Turkmenistan 8-2 and Thailand thumped South African 8-0 in the late game. Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Luxembourg 5-4 in a shootout to give the Luxembourgers their first points of the tournament. After three games, Uzbekistan and Thailand lead the way with 9 points each. Bosnia and Herzegovina sit third with 5. Turkmenistan has three while Luxembourg has one. South Africa, having surrendered 24 goals in three games. is pointless.

Uzbek forward Jasurbek is leading the tournament with 16 points (9G, 7A) in three games.

Day 1 of the U18 Division IIIA tournament went yesterday in Mexico City, with Hong Kong, Mexico and Turkiye leading off with wins. Hong Kong beat Iceland 12-2, Mexico dumped New Zealand 10-2 and Turkiye edged Israel 7-5. That tournament continues today with a full slate of games. There is, sadly, no stream listed for the tournament.

 

[Tallasar]

The U18 Division IIIB tournament continued today, and as expected we are headed to a showdown between Thailand and Uzbekistan to decide this group, and both front-runners came away with big wins on day 3.

Uzbekistan won the battle of the stans, beating Turkmenistan 8-2 and Thailand thumped South African 8-0 in the late game. Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Luxembourg 5-4 in a shootout to give the Luxembourgers their first points of the tournament. After three games, Uzbekistan and Thailand lead the way with 9 points each. Bosnia and Herzegovina sit third with 5. Turkmenistan has three while Luxembourg has one. South Africa, having surrendered 24 goals in three games. is pointless.

Uzbek forward Jasurbek is leading the tournament with 16 points (9G, 7A) in three games.

Day 1 of the U18 Division IIIA tournament went yesterday in Mexico City, with Hong Kong, Mexico and Turkiye leading off with wins. Hong Kong beat Iceland 12-2, Mexico dumped New Zealand 10-2 and Turkiye edged Israel 7-5. That tournament continues today with a full slate of games. There is, sadly, no stream listed for the tournament.

Here the stream which is provided over our NZ team management.

 

[PanniniClaus]

Here the stream which is provided over our NZ team management.

Thanks for this. Hong Kong look decent.

Unfortunately, NZ look like low end intramural hockey. Massive difference.

 

[MeHateHe]

Here the stream which is provided over our NZ team management.

Thanks for this. Nice crowd, although the rink is not so well lit.

 

[MeHateHe]

The U18 DIvision IIIA tournament is heading into its third day today, and it looks as though the key match will happen today, when Mexico and Hong Kong tangle. The two countries have both recorded lopsided wins in their first two games. On Monday Hong Kong thumped New Zealand 10-1 and Mexico beating Turkiye 8-1. That game featured a pretty ugly looking hit from behind early in the second period, with a Mexican player drilling a Turkish player from behind. The stream cut away while they were tending to the Turkish player, but he left the ice upright at least. You have to assume the Mexican player is due for a suspension. Elsewhere, Israel beat Iceland 6-3 Monday, to even their record at 1-1 and sit tied for third with Turkiye. Iceland and New Zealand are both winless. Mexican forward Pavel Goryachev - a 16-year-old who plays for Okanagan Hockey Colorado (who knew the Okanagan region stretched that far east and south?) leads the tournament with 12 points in two games.

As expected the U18 Division IIIB tournament will come down to a one-game clash between Thailand and Uzebekistan. Each have cruised to big wins through their first four games. Uzbekistan beat South African 12-0, Luxembourg 12-1, Turkmenistan 8-2 and Bosnia and Herzegovina 11-3, while Thailand beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 16-0, South Africa 8-0 and Luxembourg 10-0, with a 4-3 squeaker over Turkmenistan squeezed in. Turkmenistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina will battle for bronze tomorrow. Bosnia's overtime win over Luxembourg has them a point back. Luxembourg and South Africa will play in the first game, the winner placing fifth.

 

[MeHateHe]

Uzbekistan and Thailand at 1-1 5 minutes into the second period. Visitors are controlling the play, but the Thai defence is holding on. Winner is promoted. 25,000 watching the YouTube stream.

 

[MeHateHe]

A power play goal with 5:21 left in the third lifted Uzbekistan to a 3-2 over Thailand to claim the U18 Division IIIB tournament today in Bangkok. The game had some life, and the tiny rink was jammed, with tens of thousands watching on Youtube. Uzbekistan was the better team all game, but the Thai goalie had a very good day, with 40 saves. Thailand had a power play for the last 1:57 of the game and had a few good scoring chances but couldn't cash in.

Turkmenistan claimed the bronze by beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 5-2, while in the 5th-6th place game, South Africa beat Luxembourg 8-5.