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
 	Placed 6th in Division II B and were relegated.
 	Host, placed 2nd in Division III last year.
 	Placed 3rd in Division III last year.
 	Placed 4th in Division III last year.
 	Placed 5th in Division III last year.
 	Placed 1st in Division III qualification last year.
===Match officials===
4 referees and 7 linesmen were selected for the tournament.Assignments
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===
===Results===
All times are local (UTC+3).
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===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
 	Placed 6th in Division III last year and were relegated.
 	Placed 2nd in Division III qualification last year.
 	Host, placed 3rd in Division III qualification last year.
 	Placed 4th in Division III qualification last year.
 	First time participating in tournament.
 	First time participating in tournament.
===Match officials===
4 referees and 7 linesmen were selected for the tournament.Qualification assignments
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===
===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.
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===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.KGZ stats from four forfeited games
====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
 	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
==References==
==External links==
*Official website
*Qualification website
2019
Division III
2019 IIHF World Championship Division III
2019 IIHF World Championship Division III