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WJC: U20 Men's Division III Istanbul

MeHateHe

MeHateHe

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Dec 24, 2006
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Tournament runs Jan. 26- Feb. 2

IIHF - Schedule and Results 2023 IIHF ICE HOCKEY U20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Division III

IIHF - Schedule and Results 2023 IIHF ICE HOCKEY U20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Division III
www.iihf.com www.iihf.com

Group A
Australia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Kyrgyzstan
New Zealand

Group B
Israel
Turkiye
South Africa
Bulgaria

Based only on history, seems to me that Australia and Israel would be the two top teams. Both have done a little of the elevator thing, bouncing between Div II and Div III. Both had big wins on the opening day (Australia beat Kyrgyzstan 12-4 and Israel beat South Africa 16-1.)

Tournament is being played at what looks like a nice rink in Istanbul called Zeytinburnu Ice Rink. They claim to be the largest ice rink in Europe (not sure what that's based on, but maybe just marketing Buz Adası - Buzda eğlencenin kalbi burası!) seats 2,400. There is a second ice sheet in the building located below the main surface.

Will defer to others if they know of any players to watch. One suspects there are no NHL prospects here, but perhaps a couple of these guys will find themselves in one of the lower leagues in Europe.
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Australia has two very good players that were successful at last years D3 event.

04 F's Riley Langille (2+2) and Dmitri Kuleshov (4+2) seemed to be more than a few steps ahead of anyone else on the ice surface. Both Langille and Kuleshov play in Junior leagues in North America.
 
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Mike Levin could very well be an OHLer this year. He is a VERY, VERY good player for this level.
 
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Obviously not a ton of Turkish U20 fans around here.
GermanSpitfire said:
Mike Levin could very well be an OHLer this year. He is a VERY, VERY good player for this level.
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He's pretty teeny.

I see Bosnia has a 2008 player on its lineup. In Div 3, I guess the phrase "it's a 19-year-old's tournament" isn't operative.
 
MeHateHe said:
Obviously not a ton of Turkish U20 fans around here.

He's pretty teeny.

I see Bosnia has a 2008 player on its lineup. In Div 3, I guess the phrase "it's a 19-year-old's tournament" isn't operative.
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Size doesn’t matter at all at this level. Mike Levin is probably the best, most promising player to step foot in the tournament in a LONG time. For good reason he had 5 points in his first game.

I noticed that Bosnia had an ‘08 and Israel has a few ‘07‘s - one with production in his first game.

Iceland had a late born ’08 on their roster also at the D2B’s Ymir Haflidason.
 
GermanSpitfire said:
Mike Levin could very well be an OHLer this year. He is a VERY, VERY good player for this level.
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Yeah him and Kuleshov are probably the only ones looking at a pro career of some sort at this level. At least from my quick look through the rosters.

And yes, they should both finish with 3+ PPG. Levin is pretty close to being a top-line player for their senior team as well, wouldn't surprise me if he is in the spring.

MeHateHe said:
I see Bosnia has a 2008 player on its lineup. In Div 3, I guess the phrase "it's a 19-year-old's tournament" isn't operative.
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Someone hoping to have a pro career should easily make this NT as a 14 y.o. Maybe this kid can. Unlikely as it is.
 
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Nice to see Mike Levin commit to Israel. Having someone like that can be big for a team at that level, both in terms of results and in promoting the sport.
 
SoundAndFury said:
Yeah him and Kuleshov are probably the only ones looking at a pro career of some sort at this level. At least from my quick look through the rosters.

And yes, they should both finish with 3+ PPG. Levin is pretty close to being a top-line player for their senior team as well, wouldn't surprise me if he is in the spring.


Someone hoping to have a pro career should easily make this NT as a 14 y.o. Maybe this kid can. Unlikely as it is.
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What about Jacob Carey from NZ?

GermanSpitfire said:
Size doesn’t matter at all at this level. Mike Levin is probably the best, most promising player to step foot in the tournament in a LONG time. For good reason he had 5 points in his first game.

I noticed that Bosnia had an ‘08 and Israel has a few ‘07‘s - one with production in his first game.

Iceland had a late born ’08 on their roster also at the D2B’s Ymir Haflidason.
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Nino Tomov played in this tournament a couple of years ago
 
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kaiser matias said:
Nice to see Mike Levin commit to Israel. Having someone like that can be big for a team at that level, both in terms of results and in promoting the sport.
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I don't think having a pro somewhere at the bottom of pro hockey ladder does anything, frankly. Case in point - Sherbatov and his achievements with Israel.
 
SoundAndFury said:
I don't think having a pro somewhere at the bottom of pro hockey ladder does anything, frankly. Case in point - Sherbatov and his achievements with Israel.
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Sherbatov has received recognition though, both in Israeli media and in Jewish press, especially after he played in the KHL. It isn't much of course, but it's a lot more coverage than Israeli hockey would receive otherwise, both locally and internationally.
 
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kaiser matias said:
Sherbatov has received recognition though, both in Israeli media and in Jewish press, especially after he played in the KHL. It isn't much of course, but it's a lot more coverage than Israeli hockey would receive otherwise, both locally and internationally.
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It certainly isn't nothing but it only goes as far as letting the population know such sport exists. Being from the country that had 2 fairly significant NHL players I find the "local impact" part very overstated in these discussions. It lets people know but doesn't really give people reason to be interested in the sport if it has no presence locally at any level.
 
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Group stage ended today with mostly expected results. Australia and Israel won their respective groups with large (28:6 for Australia and 30:4 for Israel) goal differentials.

Because this is hockey, every team makes the next round and quarterfinals go tomorrow. They haven’t posted anything officially yet, but unless I misread things the games Monday will be:
Australia v South Africa
Kyrgyzstan v Turkiye
Israel v Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria v New Zealand.

Semifinals and two placement games for the QF losers on Wednesday with the finals on Thursday.
 
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Australia v South Africa 28-0. Rugby nations do rugby scores.
 
ozo said:
Australia v South Africa 28-0. Rugby nations do rugby scores.
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It's a bit wild how uneven the teams are at this tournament. It's a bit of an anomaly. The top teams are roughly Junior B (outlier players notwithstanding) while some of the players on South Africa, for example, are... not quite that good.

Semifinals and placement games are set for Wednesday. Australia gets Bulgaria in the first game while Israel plays Turkiye in the evening game. Again, it sets up for an Australia/Israel final, barring an upset. Gold medal winner promoted to Div IIB, replacing Mexico, which was relegated last week.

South Africa plays Bosnia and Herzegovina for seventh Wednesday afternoon and Kyrgyzstan meets New Zealand for fifth Thursday afternoon.
 
It will actually be interesting to look at Carey playing for the senior NT in the spring, hopefully, he makes it. He was a complete one-man band in this tournament which is understandable but also made him look very one-dimensional.
 
TheSanny said:
Imagine what the score would be between Canada and South Africa.
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A couple years ago, a Canadian Jr B team played an exhibition game against the Mexico U20 team. If this gives you any idea how a WJC Div 3 team would fare against the Canadian development system, it was an 11-2 blow-out
 
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Semifinals wrapped up today. As expected, Australia beat Bulgaria 4-1 and Israel beat Turkiye 6-4. The latter game attracted a pretty nice crowd, officially 1,370, which ain't bad for a junior tournament in a non-traditional hockey market. So Israel and Australia play tomorrow for gold while Bulgaria and Turkiye play for bronze.
 
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