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.2017 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Division III
==Venues==
Division III
Sofia
Winter Sports PalaceCapacity: 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
 	Host, placed 6th in Division II B last year and were relegated.
 	Placed 2nd in Division III last year.
 	Placed 3rd in Division III last year.
 	Placed 4th in Division III last year. (withdrew from tournament)
 	Placed 5th in Division III last year.
 	Placed 6th in Division III last year.
 	Withdrew from tournament last year. Last played in 2015.
 	First time participating in tournament.
==Match officials==
5 referees and 9 linesmen were selected for the tournament.
;Referees
* Michał Baca
* Miha Bajt
* Ivan Fateyev
* Cemal Ersin Kaya
* Kim No-su
;Linesmen
* Ferhat Aygün
* Christian Cristeli
* Illya Khokhlov
* Aleh Kliashcheunikau
* Jonas Merten
* Jakob Schauer
* Luchezar Stoyanov
* Gil Haim Tichon
* Wiktor Zień
==Preliminary round==
All times are local (UTC+3).
===Group A===
===Group B===
==Knockout stage==
===Bracket===
;5th place bracket
===5th–7th place semifinal===
===Semifinals===
===Fifth place game===
===Third place game===
===Final===
==Final ranking==
	Promoted to 2018 IIHF Division II B
	Relegation to 2018 IIHF Division III Qualification
Rank	Team
1 	 (P)
2 	 (H)
3 	
4 	
5 	
6 	
7 	 (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
==References==
2017
Division III
2017 IIHF World Championship Division III
World