# 2019 IIHF World Championship Division III

The 2019 IIHF World Championship Division III was an international ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation.
The Group A tournament was held in Sofia, Bulgaria from 22 to 28 April and the qualification tournament in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 31 March to 6 April 2019. Both Kyrgyzstan and Thailand made their debut in the World Championships, with each winning their first game (Kyrgyzstan won all five of its games, but the first four were changed to forfeits due to an ineligible player).
Bulgaria earned promotion to Division II, while the United Arab Emirates won the qualification tournament and were promoted. South Africa finished last and were demoted to the qualification tournament.

## Division III
### Participants

| Team | Qualification |
| Luxembourg | Placed 6th in Division II B and were relegated. |
| Bulgaria | Host, placed 2nd in Division III last year. |
| Turkey | Placed 3rd in Division III last year. |
| Chinese Taipei | Placed 4th in Division III last year. |
| South Africa | Placed 5th in Division III last year. |
| Turkmenistan | Placed 1st in Division III qualification last year. |

### Match officials

4 referees and 7 linesmen were selected for the tournament.
| Referees | Linesmen |
| Feng Lei Stefan Hogarth Vladimir Babic Ryan Cairns | Kiril Peychinov Luchezar Stoyanov Henri Neva Anton Boryayev Dāvis Zunde Mihai Paul Chae Youn-jin |

### Standings

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Bulgaria (H, P) | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 7 | +32 | 15 | Promotion to 2020 Division II B |
| 2 | Turkey | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 17 | +4 | 9 | |
| 3 | Turkmenistan | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 21 | 0 | 7 | |
| 4 | Luxembourg | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 15 | 20 | −5 | 6 | |
| 5 | Chinese Taipei | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 23 | 35 | −12 | 5 | |
| 6 | South Africa (R) | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 37 | −19 | 3 | Relegation to 2020 Division III B |

### Results

All times are local (UTC+3).

### Awards and statistics
#### Awards

* Best players selected by the directorate:
** Best Goalkeeper: Dimitar Dimitrov
** Best Defenseman: Shen Yen-lin
** Best Forward: Miroslav Vasilev
Source: IIHF.com

#### Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM | POS |
| Miroslav Vasilev | 5 | 10 | 6 | 16 | +10 | 22 | F |
| Weng To | 5 | 7 | 8 | 15 | +3 | 2 | F |
| Ivan Hodulov | 5 | 10 | 4 | 14 | +10 | 18 | F |
| Lin Hung-ju | 5 | 5 | 7 | 12 | −2 | 12 | F |
| Martin Boyadjiev | 5 | 2 | 7 | 9 | +8 | 6 | D |
| Shen Yen-lin | 5 | 2 | 7 | 9 | +1 | 0 | D |
| Stanislav Muhachev | 5 | 5 | 3 | 8 | +10 | 0 | F |
| Alexei Yotov | 5 | 3 | 5 | 8 | +7 | 0 | F |
| Begench Dovletmyradov | 5 | 4 | 3 | 7 | +2 | 2 | F |
| Colm Cannon | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | +2 | 4 | F |
| Uthman Samaai | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | +1 | 6 | F |
| Aleksandr Vahovskiy | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 6 | F |
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position Source: IIHF.com

#### 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.
| Player | TOI | GA | GAA | SA | Sv% | SO |
| Dimitar Dimitrov | 300:00 | 7 | 1.40 | 138 | 94.93 | 1 |
| Marcus Anselm | 292:18 | 19 | 3.90 | 160 | 88.12 | 0 |
| Keremli Charyyev | 266:32 | 18 | 4.05 | 147 | 87.76 | 0 |
| Tolga Bozacı | 272:26 | 14 | 3.08 | 114 | 87.72 | 0 |
| Hou Ta-yu | 224:52 | 22 | 5.87 | 134 | 83.58 | 0 |
TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts Source: IIHF.com

## Division III qualification tournament
### Participants

| Team | Qualification |
| Hong Kong | Placed 6th in Division III last year and were relegated. |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | Placed 2nd in Division III qualification last year. |
| United Arab Emirates | Host, placed 3rd in Division III qualification last year. |
| Kuwait | Placed 4th in Division III qualification last year. |
| Thailand | First time participating in tournament. |
| Kyrgyzstan | First time participating in tournament. |

### Match officials

4 referees and 7 linesmen were selected for the tournament.
| Referees | Linesmen |
| Kent Unwin Liu Jiaqi Dean Smith Toh Sung-taek | Jiří Gebauer Norbert Muzsik Kang Tae-woo Murat Aygün Oleksiy Ryabikov Heylaan Al-Ameri Yahya Al-Jneibi |

### Standings

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | United Arab Emirates (H, P) | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 46 | 14 | +32 | 12 | Promotion to 2020 Division III A |
| 2 | Hong Kong | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 31 | 18 | +13 | 12 | |
| 3 | Thailand | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 26 | 19 | +7 | 8 | |
| 4 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 22 | −1 | 7 | |
| 5 | Kuwait | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 43 | −34 | 3 | Later assigned to 2020 Division IV |
| 6 | Kyrgyzstan | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 24 | −17 | 3 | Later assigned to 2020 Division IV |
* 1 2 United Arab Emirates 11–1 Hong Kong
* 1 2 Kyrgyzstan 0–5 (forfeit) Kuwait

### Results

All times are local (UTC+4).
* Kyrgyzstan played its first four games, all wins, with Russian born player Aleksandr Titov in their lineup. Before their final game, also a win, when it was found that Titov was not yet eligible to play for Kyrgyzstan, he was disqualified from the tournament and Kyrgyzstan forfeited their first four games.

### Statistics

All statistics from Kyrgyzstan's first four games were not counted by the IIHF, including their opponents scoring and goaltending details.

#### Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM | POS |
| Artur Zainutdinov | 5 | 13 | 5 | 18 | +13 | 4 | F |
| Juma Al-Dhaheri | 5 | 6 | 8 | 14 | +18 | 2 | F |
| Khalifa Al-Mahrooqi | 5 | 6 | 4 | 12 | +16 | 10 | F |
| Hideki Nagayama | 4 | 3 | 7 | 10 | +5 | 2 | D |
| Mirza Omer | 4 | 2 | 8 | 10 | +6 | 8 | F |
| Tang Shin Ming Jasper | 4 | 3 | 6 | 9 | +5 | 4 | F |
| Mohamed Al-Kaabi | 5 | 6 | 2 | 8 | +4 | 38 | F |
| Artyom Karkotsky | 5 | 4 | 4 | 8 | +2 | 16 | F |
| Wong Ka-ho | 4 | 3 | 5 | 8 | –2 | 2 | D |
| Kan Siu-him | 4 | 4 | 3 | 7 | +3 | 2 | F |
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position Source: IIHF.com
* Kyrgyz players Vladimir Nosov (23 points), Vladimir Tonkikh (16), Mikhail Chuvalov (16), Islambek Abdyraev (10) and Maksim Egorov (10) do not appear in this list because their statistics from their first four games were deemed invalid.

#### 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.
| Player | TOI | GA | GAA | SA | Sv% | SO |
| Khaled Al-Suwaidi | 240:00 | 13 | 3.25 | 92 | 85.87 | 0 |
| Amel Ćapin | 201:45 | 20 | 5.95 | 126 | 84.13 | 0 |
| Keung Emerson | 140:00 | 10 | 4.29 | 54 | 81.48 | 1 |
| Cheung Ching-ho | 100:00 | 8 | 4.80 | 43 | 81.40 | 0 |
| Pattarapol Ungkulpattanasuk | 184:36 | 18 | 5.85 | 96 | 81.25 | 0 |
TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts Source: IIHF.com