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Bulgaria men's national ice hockey team

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Bulgaria
Shirt badge/Association crest
AssociationBulgarian Ice Hockey Federation
Head coachTomáš Ceperko
AssistantsSvetlin Stoev
Ivaylo Velev
CaptainYanaki Gatchev
Most gamesStoyan Batchvarov (96)
Top scorerAlexei Yotov (77)
Most pointsAlexei Yotov (163)
Team colors     
IIHF codeBUL
Ranking
Current IIHF37 Decrease 1 (27 May 2024)[1]
Highest IIHF30 (2003, 2006)
Lowest IIHF40 (2017, 2021–21)
First international
Bulgaria  4–2 Yugoslavia
(Bucharest, Romania] 17 January 1942)
Biggest win
Bulgaria  20–0  Turkey
(Pretoria, South Africa; 28 March 1998)
Biggest defeat
Kazakhstan  31–0  Bulgaria
(Poprad, Slovakia; 25 March 1994)
Ukraine  31–0  Bulgaria
(Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia; 26 March 1994)
Olympics
Appearances1 (first in 1976)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances52 (first in 1963)
Best result14th (1970)
International record (W–L–T)
149–268–24

The Bulgarian national ice hockey team (Bulgarian: Национален отбор по хокей на лед на България, Natsionalen otbor po khokeĭ na led na Bŭlgariya) is the national men's ice hockey team of Bulgaria. The team is controlled by the Bulgarian Ice Hockey Federation and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). As of 2018, Bulgaria is ranked 38th in the IIHF World Ranking and competes in Division III of the Ice Hockey World Championships.

The team has participated once at the Olympic Winter Games. This happened in Innsbruck in 1976, when Bulgaria fell to the Czechoslovak team 14–1 in the first round. After a few more losses the team finished last in the tournament.

Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, hosted the games of Division II, Group B of the 2009 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships. Bulgaria's opponents at the tournament were Belgium, Mexico, Spain, South Africa and South Korea. In 2011, Bulgaria was also in Division II, with Croatia, Romania, China, Ireland and Iceland.

Historically, the team has played in the second highest level four times, with their highest placement being 14th in 1970. However, the only year that they ever earned promotion (by placing 1st or 2nd in Pool C) was in 1975, which also qualified them for the 1976 Olympics. The only year that they won any games in Pool B was 1992 (at that time it was contested between nations ranked 13th to 20th), defeating Japan, China and Yugoslavia.

Goaltender Konstantin Mihailov played in 28 Ice Hockey World Championships with Bulgaria, and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2019, as a recipient of the Torriani Award to recognize his international hockey career.[2]

World Championship record

[edit]
The Bulgarian national team during a qualification match for the 2006 Winter Olympics in 2004.
Year City Country Result
1963 Stockholm Sweden 4th place in Group C (19th)
1967 Vienna Austria Bronze in Group C (19th)
1969 Skopje Yugoslavia 5th place in Group C (19th)
1970 Bucharest Romania 8th place in Group B (14th)
1971 Several cities the Netherlands 5th place in Group C (19th)
1972 Miercurea Ciuc Romania 4th place in Group C (17th)
1973 six cities the Netherlands 4th place in Group C (18th)
1974 Grenoble, Gap, Lyon France Bronze in Group C (17th)
1975 Sofia Bulgaria Silver in Group C (16th)
1976 Aarau and Biel/Bienne Switzerland 8th place in Group B (16th)
1977 Copenhagen and Hørsholm Denmark Bronze in Group C (20th)
1978 Las Palmas Spain 5th place in Group C (21st)
1979 Barcelona Spain 4th place in Group C (22nd)
1981 Beijing China 6th place in Group C (22nd)
1982 Jaca Spain 6th place in Group C (22nd)
1983 Budapest Hungary 6th place in Group C (22nd)
1985 Megève, Chamonix, Saint-Gervais France 6th place in Group C (22nd)
1986 Puigcerdà Spain Bronze in Group C (19th)
1987 Copenhagen, Herlev, Hørsholm Denmark 7th place in Group C (23rd)
1989 Sydney Australia 5th place in Group C (21st)
1990 Budapest Hungary 6th place in Group C (22nd)
1991 Brøndby Municipality Denmark 4th place in Group C (20th)
1992 Klagenfurt Austria 5th place in Group B (17th)
1993 Eindhoven the Netherlands 8th place in Group B (20th)
1994 Poprad and Spišská Nová Ves Slovakia 7th place in Group C1 (27th)
1995 Sofia Bulgaria 9th place in Group C1 (29th)
1996 Kaunas and Elektrėnai Lithuania 6th place in Group D (34th)
1997 Canillo Andorra 7th place in Group D (35th)
1998 Krugersdorp and Pretoria South Africa Gold in Group D (33rd)
1999 Eindhoven Tilburg South Africa 8th place in Group C (32nd)
2000 Beijing China 9th place in Group C (33rd)
2001 Bucharest Romania 4th in Division II Group B (35th)
2002 Novi Sad Yugoslavia 4th in Division II Group B (35th)
2003 Sofia Bulgaria Bronze in Division II Group B (34th)
2004 Elektrėnai Lithuania 4th in Division II Group B (36th)
2005 Zagreb Croatia 4th in Division II Group A (35th)
2006 Sofia Bulgaria Silver in Division II Group A (32nd)
2007 Zagreb Croatia 5th in Division II Group A (38th)
2008 Miercurea Ciuc Romania 5th in Division II Group A (38th)
2009 Sofia Bulgaria 4th in Division II Group B (36th)
2010 Naucalpan Mexico 4th in Division II Group A (35th)
2011 Zagreb Croatia 5th in Division II Group B (38th)
2012 Sofia Bulgaria Bronze in Division II Group B (37th)
2013 İzmit Turkey 6th in Division II Group B (40th)
2014 Luxembourg Luxembourg Gold in Division III (41st)
2015 Cape Town South Africa 4th in Division II Group B (38th)
2016 Mexico City Mexico 6th in Division II Group B (40th)
2017 Sofia Bulgaria Silver in Division III (42nd)
2018 Cape Town South Africa Silver in Division III (42nd)
2019 Sofia Bulgaria Gold in Division III (41st)
2020 Reykjavík Iceland Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[3]
2021 Reykjavík Iceland Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[4]
2022 Reykjavík Iceland 4th in Division II Group B (35th)
2023 Istanbul Turkey Bronze in Division II Group B (37th)
2024 Sofia Bulgaria 4th in Division II Group B (38th)

All-time record

[edit]
As of 23 April 2023.[5]
Opponent Played Won Drawn Lost GF GA GD
 Australia 11 6 2 3 60 57 +3
 Austria 10 1 1 8 18 58 -40
 Belgium 21 11 1 9 123 90 +33
 Belarus 1 0 0 1 1 13 -12
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 1 0 0 5 0 +5
 China 22 5 2 15 69 114 -45
 Chinese Taipei 3 3 0 0 21 4 +17
 Croatia 7 1 0 6 16 72 -56
 Czechoslovakia 1 0 0 1 1 14 −13
 Denmark 32 11 2 19 88 137 -49
 Estonia 2 0 0 2 1 37 -36
 East Germany 2 0 0 2 4 21 -17
 France 29 9 2 18 89 156 -67
 Georgia 5 3 0 2 43 20 +23
 Great Britain 8 6 1 1 47 36 +11
 Germany 1 0 0 1 1 13 -12
 Hong Kong 3 3 0 0 26 4 +22
 Hungary 47 10 1 36 147 253 -106
 Iceland 4 3 0 1 15 17 -2
 Ireland 2 2 0 0 13 4 +9
 Israel 11 3 2 6 36 50 -14
 Italy 10 1 0 9 22 55 -33
 Japan 11 3 0 8 29 66 -37
 Kazakhstan 2 0 0 2 1 39 -38
 Lithuania 3 0 0 3 3 26 -23
 Luxembourg 4 3 0 1 36 17 +19
 Mexico 11 6 0 5 61 57 +4
 Netherlands 17 3 1 13 51 110 -59
 New Zealand 7 4 0 3 50 41 +9
 North Korea 16 10 1 5 76 43 -33
 Norway 5 0 1 4 11 31 -20
 Poland 2 0 0 2 2 27 -25
 Romania 40 4 2 34 91 249 -158
 Serbia 3 0 0 3 3 25 -22
 Serbia and Montenegro 11 2 2 7 31 54 -23
 Slovakia 1 0 0 1 0 20 -20
 Slovenia 2 0 0 2 1 27 -26
 South Africa 7 7 0 0 53 10 +43
 South Korea 9 5 0 4 53 48 +5
 Spain 15 8 1 6 74 63 +11
  Switzerland 5 0 0 5 9 32 -23
 Turkey 10 8 0 2 76 25 +51
 Turkmenistan 1 1 0 0 6 2 +4
 United Arab Emirates 2 1 0 1 13 12 +1
 Ukraine 2 0 0 2 0 48 -48
 United States 1 0 0 1 1 19 −18
 Yugoslavia 21 5 2 14 67 121 -54
Total 441 149 24 268 1 642 2 437 -795

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "IIHF Men's World Ranking". IIHF. 27 May 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  2. ^ Podnieks, Andrew (6 February 2019). "Hall of Fame Class of 2019 named". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Men's Division II, III cancelled". IIHF. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  4. ^ "IIHF – IIHF Council announces more cancellations". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  5. ^ "Ice Hockey in Belgium". National Teams of Ice Hockey. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
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