IIHF World Championship 2020 Participants: Team Kazakhstan

The hockey team of Kazakhstan appeared shortly after the collapse of the USSR – in 1992 and represented the country in international competitions and tournaments.

For 2019, the team ranks 19th in the ranking of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF World Ranking).

The current head coach of the team is Andrey Skabelka.

The highest occupied place at the World Championships is 12, in 2005. According to the results of the 2016 World Championship, the national team dropped into the First Division and only in 2019 was able to win a ticket to the Top Division.

History and achievements

Kazakhstan ice hockey team was formed in 1992. From 1993 to 2006, the national teams of Kazakhstan (youth, youth, women and men) won 35 medals at the World and Asian Championships, 17 of which were gold, nine silver and nine bronze.

The men’s hockey team is a participant in two Olympic Games in Nagano and Turin, and the women’s in Salt Lake City. The highest achievement is 5-8 place at the Olympics in Nagano. Five times the national team of Kazakhstan played in the top division of the World Championship, and the highest achievement was the 12th place in 2005.

In February 1996, for the first time participating in the Asian Winter Games in Chinese Harbin, the Kazakhstan national team led by Boris Alexandrov became the champion of the third Games, and in February 1997 in Austria, they got a ticket to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, where they reached the quarter-finals.

In November 1997, at a tournament in Austria, the team left Division C to Division A of the World Championship, but in May 1998 in Switzerland lost all the games in the World Championship and took 15th place.

The most important event in the history of the national team of Kazakhstan is the victory over the national team of Slovakia (4: 3) at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano. Thanks to this victory, Kazakhstan took place in the eight of the strongest national teams in the world and drew attention to the national team, mainly because the team was formed by the players of one club – Torpedo (Ust-Kamenogorsk).

In November 1999, in a qualifying tournament in the UK, the team was unable to leave Group B in Group A of the 2000 World Championship, losing to Latvia and Ukraine.

In February 2000, at the qualifying tournament in Estonia, the team only didn’t make it to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, USA in terms of the ratio of games, losing to Ukraine.

In April 2001, at the World Championships in the first division, the team lost first place and a ticket to the top division to the hosts, the Slovenian national team.

In April 2002, at the World Championship in the first division in the Netherlands, the team, unexpectedly losing to France, lost the first place to the team Belarus.

In February 2003, at the fifth winter Asian Games in Aomori (Japan), the team took second place, losing to the hosts, the Japanese.

At the 2004 World Championship in the Czech Republic, the team took 13th place but stayed in the top division.

In February 2005, a qualifying tournament for the 2006 Olympics was held in Klagenfurt, Austria. In the opening match, the team was defeated by the hosts – 0-4, but the minimum wins in the remaining games with Ukraine and France were enough to take first place in the subgroup. At the Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, the team performed decently, beating Latvia, only with a minimal score lost to the teams of Russia and Slovakia and took the final 9th ​​place. The flag bearer of the delegation of Kazakhstan at the opening of the Games was forward Alexander Koreshkov.

At the 2006 World Championship in Riga, the Kazakhstan national team took 15th place and downgraded to the first division. Head coach Myshagin, who was invariably helped as a consultant by a Russian specialist Gennady Tsygurov, left the post of coach of the team.

Due to a lack of funds in the hockey federation, as well as stricter rules for legionnaires in the Russian Super League, his successors A. Kartaev and E. Sagymbaev experienced significant problems in recruiting the national team. Anatoly Kartaev, who was also the head coach of Satpayev’s Kazakhmys, attracted a whole group of Russian hockey players from his club to the national team.

In February 2007, at the sixth Asian Winter Games in Changchun, China, the team again lost first place to the Japanese team. At the group stage, Kazakhstan won two record victories: the UAE hockey players (103-2 in the shots) were beaten 38: 0, and the match against Thailand was the largest victory in the history of Kazakhstan – 52: 1 (91-7 in the shots).

In 2009, the Kazakhstan national team won the tournament in the first division, but the next year at the World Championships in Germany, it was a failure, losing all six matches.

In 2011, the Kazakhstan national hockey team for the third time won the Asian Winter Games on home ice in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana.

In 2012, the team entered the World Championship top division but again took the last place, this time with 1 point in the asset.

In 2014 and 2016, team Kazakhstan appeared in the elite division of the World Championship. However, they couldn’t remain in the elite losing all games.

In 2017, 2018 and 2019, the team continuously was trying to win their ticket back to the elite division, and in finally in 2019 they’ve managed to do so by winning the first place in the World Championship Division I in the capital of Kazakhstan – Nur-Sultan.

Let’s wish them luck at the IIHF World Championship 2020 in Switzerland.