The Israel national ice hockey team (Hebrew: נבחרת ישראל בהוקי קרח) is the national men's ice hockey team of Israel. Israel was ranked 35th as of May 2017 by the International Ice Hockey Federation.^[4] In 2019, the team won the gold medal in the 2019 IIHF World Championship Division II Group B tournament in Mexico City.

Quick Facts Association, General manager ...

Israel

Association	Ice Hockey Federation of Israel
General manager	Felix Kozak
Head coach	Evgeni Kozhevnikov
Assistants	Pavel Levin Eduard Revniaga
Captain	Michail Kozhevnikov
Most games	Sergei Frenkel (81)[1]
Top scorer	Daniel Mazour (50)[2]
Most points	Sergei Frenkel (109)[1]
Team colors
IIHF code	ISR
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Ranking
Current IIHF	33 1 (28 May 2023)[3]
Highest IIHF	32 (2014)
Lowest IIHF	40 (first in 2011)
First international
Spain  23–4  Israel (Johannesburg, South Africa; 22 March 1992)
Biggest win
Israel  26–2  Greece (Cape Town, South Africa; 15 April 2011)
Biggest defeat
Latvia  32–0  Israel (Ljubljana, Slovenia; 15 March 1993)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances	29 (first in 1992)
Best result	28th (2006)
International record (W–L–T)
67–84–9

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Its greatest achievement in its history was winning its division II group in 2005 and being promoted to division I for the first, and thus far only, time. Israel was relegated back to division II a year later.

Eliezer Sherbatov drew international attention when he first played in the 2005 IIHF World U18 Championship Division III, in Bulgaria, at the age of 13, becoming the youngest player to step on the ice in an under-18 ice hockey world championship.^[5][6] He scored 9 points (4 goals + 5 assists) in 5 games, as the team won a bronze medal, Israel's first in hockey in a championship tournament.^[6][7][8]

The team was promoted to the IIHF World Championship Division I in 2005 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.^[9] The following year the team was relegated again to Division II.^[10] In 2010, Israel was relegated to Division III.^[11]

However, in 2011 the team finished first in Division III Group B, earning a promotion back to Division II.^[12] Israel won all five of its games by a combined score of 57–9, and was promoted to the IIHF Division II WHC to be played in 2012.^[6] Sherbatov led the tournament in points, goals, assists, and +/-, earning 26 points (14 goals + 12 assists) in just four games.^[13] He was named the best forward of the tournament.^[13][14]

At the 2012 IIHF World Championship Division II tournament in Bulgaria, the Israeli team was able to stay in the second division.^[14] Beginning in 2015 and still as of 2020, Sherbatov was captain of the national team.^[15][13]

In 2019, the team won the gold medal in the 2019 IIHF World Championship Division II Group B tournament in Mexico City, Israel's first gold medal in hockey.^[16][8] With the win, the team qualified for the World Championships Division 2A.^[17] Sherbatov was named Best Forward, and had the best +/- rating, was the top goal scorer, and was the top scorer with 15 points (7 goals + 8 assists) in 5 games.^[14]

Israel has tried to qualify for the Olympics four times. In their first attempt in 1996 for the 1998 Winter Olympics they played Greece in a preliminary match in Metula, which they lost 10-2. However, Greece used ineligible players, so Israel played another preliminary match against Yugoslavia, in Kaunas. Israel lost the game 5-3, but ended up being disqualified anyways due to use of ineligible players from Russia.^[19] The scores for both forfeited matches are recorded as 5-0.

Israel's second attempt was in 2012 for the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they were the lowest-ranked country attempting to qualify at 40th place.^[20] Israel was placed in a preliminary qualifying group with Croatia, Serbia and Mexico for a round-robin qualifier in Zagreb, in which they lost every game.

In 2015 Israel attempted to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and were placed in the first preliminary round. In their group matches held in Tallinn, they were unable to qualify for the second preliminary round, beating Bulgaria but losing to Estonia and Mexico.

Israel's most recent attempt was in 2019 for the 2022 Winter Olympics. For the first time, they were ranked high enough to skip the first round of qualification, and were placed in the second pre-qualification round held in Brașov. In their group they lost to Romania and Iceland, but were able to beat Kyrgyzstan in overtime.

As of 27 April 2024

More information Team, GP ...

Team	GP	W	T	L	GF	GA
Australia	14	6	0	8	50	69
Belgium	15	6	1	8	46	60
Bulgaria	11	6	2	3	50	36
China	9	1	0	8	25	58
Croatia	7	0	0	7	7	53
Estonia	5	0	0	5	9	79
France	1	0	0	1	0	9
Georgia	2	1	0	1	10	9
Germany	1	0	0	1	2	11
Great Britain	1	0	0	1	0	12
Greece	5	4	1	0	59	13
Hungary	1	0	0	1	0	8
Iceland	12	8	0	4	55	34
Ireland	1	1	0	0	7	1
Japan	1	0	0	1	1	7
Kyrgyzstan	1	1	0	0	5	4
Latvia	1	0	0	1	0	32
Lithuania	1	0	0	1	2	7
Luxembourg	4	2	2	0	26	9
Mexico	11	6	0	5	42	46
Mongolia	1	1	0	0	5	0
Netherlands	1	0	0	1	0	7
New Zealand	8	3	0	5	36	31
North Korea	8	5	2	1	45	31
Romania	4	0	0	4	2	55
Serbia	8	2	0	6	20	44
South Africa	8	7	0	1	46	21
South Korea	4	0	1	3	11	23
Spain	9	1	1	7	17	76
Turkey	8	8	0	0	78	11
United Arab Emirates	1	0	0	1	6	10
Ukraine	1	0	0	1	0	29
Total	165	69	9	87	662	895

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