The Belarusian men's national under-20 ice hockey team is the national under-20

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

team in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. The team represented Belarus at the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...

World Junior Hockey Championship The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), or simply the "World Juniors" in ice hockey circles, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is t ...

. Prior to independence in 1991, Belarusian players played for the

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, which played in the World Juniors from its inception in 1974. Belarus has played in the top division eight times, first in

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and most recently in

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, with their best finish being ninth overall in both

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and

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. The most recent tournament, the 2019 tournament, had Belarus finished second in Division I, the second tier, and twelfth overall. Due to the

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, the

banned all Belarusian national and club teams from its events indefinitely, and

Hockey Canada Hockey Canada (which merged with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1994) is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority ...

banned Belarus’s “participation in events held in Canada that do not fall under the IIHF’s jurisdiction.”

History

Belarus became an independent nation in 1991, and the team made their first appearance at the World Junior Hockey Championships in 1998, when Belarus won Pool B (now Division I). The U20 team played at the

1999 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The 1999 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (''1999 WJC'') was held in Winnipeg, and five other communities in Manitoba, Canada from December 26, 1998 to January 5, 1999. In the gold medal match at Winnipeg Arena, Russia defeated Canada 3–2 ...

in Winnipeg, but the Belarusians never won a game. Belarus finished 10th and were relegated to Pool B for 2000. The team returned to the top level by defeating Germany in the final. The Belarusians avoided relegation by winning and tying a game against the Kazakhs. Belarus competed in the 2002 and 2003 World Junior Championships, until finally being relegated under the new IIHF format. Belarus returned to the top division in 2005, but were relegated again. Belarus has mainly been in the second-tier Division I level since then, though have been promoted to the top division on occasion, most recently in

World Junior Championship record

References

External links

Belarus
at IIHF.com {{Ice hockey in Belarus

Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

Junior national ice hockey teams