The Israel Under-20 National Team took home the gold medal at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III Group A tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, finishing undefeated at 5-0 with concluding victories over Turkey and Mexico.

The result will see the blue-and-white promoted to Division II, Group B.

Initially, this year’s tournament was slated to take place in Israel, at the OneIce Arena near Netanya, but when the war broke out on October 7 the International Ice Hockey Federation decided to move the games to Bulgaria.

Later, on January 10, the IIHF made the decision “to restrict the Israeli National Team from participating in IIHF Championships until the safety and well-being of all participants (including Israeli participants) can be assured.”

According to inside sources, that move came after its chairman, Luc Tardif, succumbed to external political pressures, including Russian voices.

The Israel Women's National team playing at the OneIce Arena near Netanya (credit: OneIce Group/Nimrod Gluckman)
The Israel Women's National team playing at the OneIce Arena near Netanya (credit: OneIce Group/Nimrod Gluckman)

A week later, eight hours before a scheduled hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the Olympic Committee of Israel and the Israeli Ice Hockey Association received notification informing them that its ban was rescinded, paving the way for the blue-and-white’s participation.

Israel is undefeated

An opening victory 8-6 conquest of New Zealand was followed by a 7-3 victory over Bulgaria and a 16-1 rout of Kyrgyzstan.
The fourth game, against Turkey, began with Israel falling behind 1-0 in the fourth minute. However a pair of tallies from Nikita Zitserman and additional goals from Yann Raskin and Itay Keren rounded out the 4-1 blue-and-white’s victory.
In the ultimate game against the Mexicans,  the Israelis prevailed 6-3 as Guy Aharonovich notched a pair of third-period goals 26 seconds apart to seal the result and perfect record.
Israel forward Mike Levin was the tournament scoring leader with 17 points (9 goals, 8 assists) while as a team, Israel scored 41 goals over the five games, while conceding only 14.
Next year, the blue-and-white will play in Division II against the likes of Spain, Serbia, Iceland, Australia, and Belgium.
“Our winning first place made me doubly happy in view of the fact that they didn’t want us here,” noted Ice Hockey Federation of Israel CEO Mikhael Horowitz. “This is the opportunity to once again thank everyone who acted and caused the decision to be changed.

I also owe thanks to the Phoenix Group, which within a few hours took care of the entire insurance side of things for the team, and to Israel Ambassador to Bulgaria Yossi Levy Sfari, who has been accompanying the team closely for the past week.”