The Australian men’s national under-20 team have defeated the Bulgarian men’s national under-20 team 4–1 in their semifinal of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III tournament. Dmitri Kuleshov led the team in scoring with two goals followed by Riley Langille and Sacha Rapchuk with one each. The IIHF award for best Australian player of the match was given to forward Maxim Lyashenko while the Australian team named Mathieu Vaillancourt their players’ player and Matus Trnka their hardest worker.
In the other semifinal Israel defeated Turkey 6–4 and in the 7th–8th placement match Bosnia and Herzegovina beat South Africa 7–3. Australia takes on Israel today in the gold medal game and a chance for promotion to Division II Group B. The two teams last met at the 2022 World Championships where Australia won 1–0 to claim the bronze medal. In the other two games that will be held today Bulgaria and Turkey play for bronze and Kyrgyzstan and New Zealand will play off for fifth place.
Game summary
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Bulgaria | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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