The 2017 IIHF World Championship Division III was an international ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

from 10 to 16 April 2017. Seven teams participated in the tournament, divided into two groups.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

was originally scheduled to participate, but withdrew before the tournament began; all their games were recorded as 5–0 forfeits for the opposing team.

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

won the tournament, defeating

10–4 in the final, and played in Division IIB in 2018.

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

debuted in Division III and, apart from defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina in a forfeit, recorded their first official win, beating the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

4–0 in the 5th place playoff.

Venues

The Bulgarian bid was the only contender for the 2017 IIHF World Championship Division III competition. It will mark the first time that this competition has been held in Bulgaria. In September 2016 the format of the division was realigned into one tournament with two preliminary divisions.

Participants

Match officials

5 referees and 9 linesmen were selected for the tournament. ;Referees * Michał Baca * Miha Bajt * Ivan Fateyev * Cemal Ersin Kaya * Kim No-su ;Linesmen * Ferhat Aygün * Christian Cristeli * Illya Khokhlov * Aleh Kliashcheunikau * Jonas Merten * Jakob Schauer * Luchezar Stoyanov * Gil Haim Tichon * Wiktor Zień

Preliminary round

''All times are local (

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

).''

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage

Bracket

;5th place bracket

5th–7th place semifinal

Semifinals

Fifth place game

Third place game

Final

Final ranking

(H) Host; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated.
Source
IIHF.com
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Awards and statistics

Awards

*Best players selected by the directorate: ** Best

Goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

: Liao Yu-cheng ** Best

Defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

: Artem Kurbatov ** Best

Forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Robert Beran The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

Source
IIHF.com

Scoring leaders

''GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position''
Source
IIHF.com
/small>

Goaltending leaders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list. ''TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA =

Goals against average Goals against average (GAA) also known as "average goals against" or "AGA" is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on s ...

; Sv% = Save percentage; SO =

Shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

s''
Source
IIHF.com
/small>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iihf World Championship 2017 Division III

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

2017 IIHF World Championship Division III 2017 IIHF World Championship Division III 2010s in Sofia

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...