# 2017 IIHF World Championship Division III

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, Bulgaria from 10 to 16 April 2017. Seven teams participated in the tournament, divided into two groups. Bosnia and Herzegovina 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 won the tournament, defeating Bulgaria 10–4 in the final, and played in Division IIB in 2018. Chinese Taipei debuted in Division III and, apart from defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina in a forfeit, recorded their first official win, beating the UAE 4–0 in the 5th place playoff.

## Venues

* Division III
* Sofia
* Winter Sports Palace Capacity: 4,600
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

| Team | Qualification |
| Bulgaria | Host, placed 6th in Division II B last year and were relegated. |
| South Africa | Placed 2nd in Division III last year. |
| Luxembourg | Placed 3rd in Division III last year. |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | Placed 4th in Division III last year. (withdrew from tournament) |
| Hong Kong | Placed 5th in Division III last year. |
| Georgia | Placed 6th in Division III last year. |
| United Arab Emirates | Withdrew from tournament last year. Last played in 2015. |
| Chinese Taipei | First time participating in tournament. |

## Match officials

5 referees and 9 linesmen were selected for the tournament.

## Preliminary round

All times are local (UTC+3).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Bulgaria (H) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 3 | +15 | 9 | Semifinals |
| 2 | Hong Kong | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 12 | +1 | 6 | Semifinals |
| 3 | Chinese Taipei | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 3 | |
| 4 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 15 | −15 | 0 | Withdrawn |
* ↑ Bosnia withdrew before the tournament and all games were forfeited and counted as a 5–0 win for the opposing team.

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Luxembourg | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 5 | +21 | 9 | Semifinals |
| 2 | Georgia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 11 | +18 | 6 | Semifinals |
| 3 | South Africa | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 9 | +5 | 3 | |
| 4 | United Arab Emirates | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 44 | −44 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage
### Bracket

| Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final |
| 15 April | 15 April |
| Luxembourg | 8 |
| Luxembourg | 8 | 16 April | 16 April |
| Hong Kong | 1 | 16 April | 16 April |
| Hong Kong | 1 | Luxembourg | 10 |
| 15 April | 15 April | | Luxembourg | 10 |
| 15 April | 15 April | Bulgaria | 4 |
| Bulgaria | 9 | Bulgaria | 4 |
| Georgia | 3 | | |
| Georgia | 3 | Third place | Third place |
| | | 16 April | 16 April |
| | | Hong Kong | 3 |
| | | Georgia | 14 |

#### 5th place bracket

| 5th–7th place semifinals | 5th–7th place semifinals | Fifth place | Fifth place |
| | | 16 April | 16 April |
| | | South Africa | 7 |
| 15 April | 15 April | | South Africa | 7 |
| 15 April | 15 April | Chinese Taipei | 3 |
| Chinese Taipei | 4 | Chinese Taipei | 3 |
| United Arab Emirates | 0 | | |

### Final
## Final ranking

* Promoted to 2018 IIHF Division II B
* Relegation to 2018 IIHF Division III Qualification
| Rank | Team |
| 1 | Luxembourg (P) |
| 2 | Bulgaria (H) |
| 3 | Georgia |
| 4 | Hong Kong |
| 5 | South Africa |
| 6 | Chinese Taipei |
| 7 | United Arab Emirates (R) |
(H) Host; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated. Source: IIHF.com

## Awards and statistics
### Awards

* Best players selected by the directorate:
** Best Goaltender: Liao Yu-cheng
** Best Defenceman: Artem Kurbatov
** Best Forward: Robert Beran
Source: IIHF.com

### Scoring leaders

| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM | POS |
| Artem Kozyulin | 5 | 13 | 12 | 25 | +13 | 6 | F |
| Ivan Shvetsov | 5 | 11 | 9 | 20 | +9 | 2 | F |
| Artem Kurbatov | 5 | 6 | 14 | 20 | +16 | 8 | D |
| Robert Beran | 5 | 6 | 13 | 19 | +14 | 8 | F |
| Colm Cannon | 5 | 11 | 6 | 17 | +14 | 6 | F |
| Vitali Dumbadze | 5 | 6 | 9 | 15 | +13 | 26 | F |
| Grigory Filimonov | 5 | 3 | 9 | 12 | +6 | 8 | F |
| Alexei Yotov | 4 | 3 | 8 | 11 | +5 | 0 | F |
| Benny Welter | 5 | 6 | 3 | 9 | +15 | 0 | F |
| Stanislav Muhachev | 4 | 3 | 6 | 9 | +4 | 2 | 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 |
| Philippe Lepage | 240:00 | 9 | 2.25 | 107 | 91.59 | 1 |
| Liao Yu-cheng | 169:59 | 9 | 3.18 | 103 | 91.26 | 1 |
| Andrei Ilienko | 287:28 | 21 | 4.38 | 169 | 87.57 | 1 |
| King Ho | 168:16 | 23 | 8.20 | 150 | 84.67 | 0 |
| Ahmed Al-Dhaheri | 120:00 | 12 | 6.00 | 73 | 83.56 | 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