The Australian men’s national under-20 team have defeated the Kyrgyzstan men’s national under-20 team 12–4 in their opening game of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III tournament. Dmitri Kuleshov led with four goals followed by Lachlan Clifford and Riley Langille who scored two apiece. The remaining four goals were scored by Nicholas Doornbos, Maxim Lyashenko, Noah Maley and Noah Moncrieff all of which recorded their first goal in international competition. The IIHF award for best Australian player of the match was given to forward Dimitri Kuleshov while the Australian team named Dillon Dewar their players’ player and Maxim Lyashenko their hardest worker.
In the other games of the day Israel defeated South Africa 16–1, New Zealand beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 6–1 and Bulgaria defeated Turkey 5–3. At the end of the first day Australia sits at the top of the Group A standings while Israel leads Group B. The team takes on New Zealand today for their second game the tournament. The two teams recently met in an exhibition game prior to the tournament where Australia earned a 4–0 shoutout and last met at the World Championship level in 2018 where Australia won 6–3.
Game summary
1st
2nd
3rd
Final
Australia
3
3
6
12
Kyrgyzstan
1
1
2
4
– Game details: 10:00, 26 January 2023, Zeytinburnu Ice Rink. Game card
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