Greece men's national ice hockey team

The Greek national ice hockey team () is the national ice hockey team of Greece and as an associate member of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that competed in Division III of the IIHF World Championships. Greece are unable to compete in IIHF tournaments at present because they cannot fulfill the minimum standard of having one operational "Olympic size" indoor rink. They last competed in 2013.
==History==
Ice hockey started in Greece in 1984 by players that returned to Greece from abroad. The first official Greek Championship was held in 1989 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium with five teams taking place. It was the first time that ice hockey games were held in an official-size rink in the country. In 1990, the first junior national team was formed and took part in the World Junior Championship Pool C, held in Yugoslavia. In 1991, the junior national team took part in the World Junior Championship, held in Italy. In 1992, the first ever men's national team was formed and took place in the World Championships Pool C2 held in South Africa. With only two weeks of serious training abroad and the support of the Greeks of South Africa, the men's national team finished ahead of three other new hockey nations, winning the Bronze medal, placing them 29th overall.
Despite the great achievement, the start of the decline of the sport came in 1993. Economic help was discontinued by the Greek Undersecretary of State for Sports and all expenses to keep ice hockey alive were passed over to the players. Practices stopped and many players quit.
Since May 2003, the last ice rink in Greece closed and the national team was left without an ice rink. In the next 4 years, players of the national team traveled at their own expense in the Czech Republic in order to train themselves. Unfortunately, the IIHF determined in 2013 that the team will not be able to participate in any World Championship programs until an Olympic sized ice rink is constructed in the country.Game over for National Team
Ice hockey was slowly dying until Dimitris Kalyvas (currently the captain of Team Greece) tried to convince the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that the National Team is still active and that development of the sport is continuing in the country despite not having an ice rink. He later received the support of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation. After many emails, the IIHF decided to send 2 delegates to Athens to investigate. After a review by the IIHF in 2008, Greece retained its status within the IIHF, and took part in a qualification tournament against Armenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo prior to the 2008 Division III championship in Luxembourg. They defeated both teams, beating Armenia 8 – 5 (although Armenia was forced to forfeit each game 5 – 0), and Bosnia-Herzegovina 10 – 1. They took part in Division III from 2008 until 2013, highlighted by a second-place finish in their group (third overall) in 2010.
==2013 World Championship Division III==
Forwards
# 	Player 	Position	Shoots	Date of birth	Club
2 	Pavlos Kasampoulis 	F 	L 	Jul. 21, 1988	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
3 	Polykarpos Amanatidis 	F 	L 	Aug. 23, 1979	Aris Thessaloniki
6 	Georgios Kouleles 	F 	R 	Oct. 2, 1983 	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
7 	Eleftherios Fournogerakis 	F 	R 	Oct. 19, 1979	Mad Cows Athens
8 	Iason Pachos 	F 	R 	Aug. 3, 1985 	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
10	Alexandros Valsamas-Rallis	F 	R 	Oct. 1, 1984 	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
12	Dimitrios Malamas 	F 	R 	May 12, 1973 	Aris Thessaloniki
13	Ioannis Koufis 	F 	R 	Jun. 28, 1965	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
17	Panagiotis Koulouris 	LW 	L 	Sep. 2, 1983 	Aris Thessaloniki
19	Georgios Kalyvas 	F 	L 	Dec. 6, 1978 	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
21	Dimitrios Kalyvas 	F 	L 	Dec. 11, 1973	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
22	Kyriakos Adamidis 	F 	L 	Dec. 03, 1990	PAOK Thessaloníki HC
Defencemen
# 	Player 	Position	Shoots	Date of birth	Club
5 	Nikolaos Chatzigiannis	D 	L 	Jan. 30, 1978	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
9 	Ioannis Ziakas 	D 	L 	Jul. 31, 1972	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
11	Orestis Tilios 	D 	L 	Nov. 7, 1974 	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
14	Diogenis Souras 	D 	R 	Sep. 8, 1986 	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
15	Antonis Kanellis 	D 	L 	May 29, 1991 	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
24	Nikolaos Papadopoulos 	D 	R 	Dec. 22, 1987	PAOK Thessaloníki HC
16	Marios Libertos 	D 	R 	Jun. 14, 1970	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
Goaltenders
# 	Player 	Position	Catches	Date of birth	Club
1 	Georgios Fiotakis	G 	L 	Jan. 25, 1971	Albatros Athens
25	Dalibor Ploutsis 	G 	L 	Nov. 15, 1976	Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai
Staff
Title 	Staff Member
Head Coach 	Igor Apostolidis
Assistant Coach	Panagiotis Efkarpidis
Team Leader 	Nikos Bliagos
Staff 	Georgia Proimou
==World Championship record==
Year	Location 	Result
1992	Johannesburg, South Africa 	Bronze in Pool C2 (29th)
1993	Ankara, Turkey 	2nd in Pool C qualifying Group 4 (NR)
1995	Johannesburg, South Africa 	9th place in Pool C2 (38th)
1996	Metula, Israel 	3rd in Pool D qualifying Group 2 (NR)
1998	Krugersdorp / Pretoria, South Africa	8th place in Pool D (40th)
1999	Krugersdorp, South Africa 	8th place in Pool D (39th)
2008	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 	5th place in Div III (45th)
2009	Dunedin, New Zealand 	4th place in Div III (44th)
2010	Kockelscheuer, Luxembourg 	Silver in Group B of Division III (43rd)
2011	Cape Town, South Africa 	5th place in Division III (45th)
2012	Erzurum, Turkey 	5th place in Division III (45th)
2013	Cape Town, South Africa 	5th place in Division III (45th)
==All-time Record against other nations==
As of April 21, 2013
Team 	GP	W 	T	L 	GF 	GA
 	9 	3 	0	6 	36 	55
 	1 	1 	0	0 	10 	1
* 	1 	1 	0	0 	5 	0
 	1 	1 	0	0 	13 	0
 	3 	3 	0	0 	19 	7
 	4 	1 	0	3 	14 	17
 	1 	1 	0	0 	8 	6
 	7 	2 	0	5 	17 	45
 	5 	1 	0	4 	13 	59
 	4 	1 	0	3 	16 	22
 	2 	0 	1	1 	7 	19
 	3 	0 	0	3 	5 	18
 	1 	0 	0	1 	2 	10
 	1 	0 	0	1 	1 	20
 	5 	0 	0	5 	8 	50
 	4 	0 	0	4 	3 	42
 	3 	2 	0	1 	11 	6
Total	55	17	1	37	187	372
Note: Greece was awarded a 5–0 victory over Armenia in the 2008 IIHF World Championship Division III Qualification after Armenia forfeited the game due to player eligibility issues. The score of the game was originally an 8–5 for Greece.
==All-time Record against other clubs==
As of December 15, 2007
Team 	GP	W	T	L	GF	GA
HC Brod 	1 	0	0	1	2 	12
HC Hradiště 	1 	0	0	1	1 	15
HC Veteraní 	1 	0	0	1	5 	15
HC Popelkou 	1 	0	1	0	7 	7
HC Hamag Zlín	1 	0	0	1	1 	9
Total 	5 	0	1	4	16	58
==2010 World Championship==
The Greece national ice hockey team competed in the 2010 IIHF World Championship Division III which was held in Luxembourg from April 14- April 17. The team was successful in winning the silver medal; gold went to Ireland and the host country Luxembourg won bronze
==1992 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships Group C2==
Here are the Results of Team Greece's first medal winning championship in 1992.
Qualification-
==References==
==External links==
*Official website
*IIHF profile
*National Teams of Ice Hockey
*ICE HOCKEY IN GREECE
* ΧΟΚΕΫ ΕΠΙ ΠΑΓΟΥ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ