Israel

Association	Ice Hockey Federation of Israel
General manager	Felix Kozak
Head coach	Ty Newberry
Assistants	Pavel Levin Eduard Revniaga
Captain	Michail Kozhevnikov
Most games	Sergei Frenkel (81)[1]
Top scorer	Daniel Mazour (48)[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	28 (first in 1992)
Best result	28th (2006)
International record (W–L–T)
67–84–9

The Israel national ice hockey team (Hebrew: נבחרת ישראל בהוקי קרח) is the national men's ice hockey team of Israel. Since 2015, the team's Captain has been Eliezer Sherbatov. 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.

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.

Ranking

Date	Rank	Movement
2002	34	–
2003	35	1
2004	36	1
2005	35	1
2006	33	2
2007	34[5]	1
2008	35[6]	1
2009	36[7]	1
Feb 2010	38[8]	2
Apr 2010	39[9]	1
2011	40[10]	1
2012	40[11]	±0
2013	39[12]	1
Feb 2014	33[13]	6
Apr 2014	32[14]	1
2015	33[15]	1
2016	34[16]	1
2017	35[4]	1

World Championships record

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.^[17][18] 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.^[18][19][20]

The team was promoted to the IIHF World Championship Division I in 2005 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.^[21] The following year the team was relegated again to Division II.^[22] In 2010, Israel was relegated to Division III.^[23]

However, in 2011 the team finished first in Division III Group B, earning a promotion back to Division II.^[24] 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.^[18] Sherbatov led the tournament in points, goals, assists, and +/-, earning 26 points (14 goals + 12 assists) in just four games.^[25] He was named the best forward of the tournament.^[25][26]

At the 2012 IIHF World Championship Division II tournament in Bulgaria, the Israeli team was able to stay in the second division.^[26] Beginning in 2015 and still as of 2020, Sherbatov was captain of the national team.^[27][25]

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.^[28][20] With the win, the team qualified for the World Championships Division 2A.^[29] 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.^[26]

Olympics

Israel has tried to qualify for the Olympics three times. In 1996 they advanced past Greece, and were eliminated by Yugoslavia before the main qualification rounds, in trying to advance to the 1998 Olympics.

For the 2014 Winter Olympics, Israel attempted to qualify, going 0–3 in the pre-qualifier.^[31]

For the 2018 Winter Olympics, Israel again attempted to qualify.^[32] However, they were unable to, going 1–2 in the pre-qualifier.

Team

Roster

Roster for the 2023 IIHF World Championship.^[33]

Goaltenders
#	Player	Catches	Height	Weight	Date of birth	Club
1	Nir Tichon	L	183 cm	75 kg	(1993-10-17) 17 October 1993	HC Stadion Cheb
25	Maxim Kalyayev	L	179 cm	79 kg	(1998-04-15) 15 April 1998	Rishon Devils
Defencemen
#	Player	Shoots	Height	Weight	Date of birth	Club
5	Denis Kozev	L	182 cm	86 kg	(1998-09-08) 8 September 1998	Maccabi North Stars Metulla
4	Evgeni Kozhevnikov	L	188 cm	95 kg	(1981-10-29) 29 October 1981	HC Bat Yam Chiefs
10	Michail Kozhevnikov	L	183 cm	88 kg	(1981-10-29) 29 October 1981	HC Bat Yam Chiefs
2	Nir Sigalov	L	173 cm	83 kg	(2005-04-06) 6 April 2005	HC Rhode Island
Forwards
#	Player	Shoots	Height	Weight	Date of birth	Club
7	Roey Aharonovich	L	175 cm	71 kg	(1996-07-07) 7 July 1996	Bryn Athyn Lions
14	Itay Ben Tov	L	180 cm	83 kg	(1994-07-24) 24 July 1994	Maccabi North Stars Metulla
12	Timur Galeyev	L	174 cm	68 kg	(1996-06-20) 20 June 1996	Jerusalem Bears
24	Yuval Halpert	L	171 cm	74 kg	(2000-09-20) 20 September 2000	Dordrecht Lions
3	Ariel Kapulkin	R	176 cm	77 kg	(1998-09-19) 19 September 1998	NYU Violets
22	Maxim Khubashvili	L	182 cm	76 kg	(1997-11-18) 18 November 1997	Rishon Devils
16	David Levin	L	179 cm	80 kg	(1999-09-16) 16 September 1999	Nottingham Panthers
11	Daniel Mazour	L	186 cm	86 kg	(1992-01-05) 5 January 1992	Monfort Ma'alot
9	Aviv Milner	L	183 cm	85 kg	(1995-02-23) 23 February 1995	Kfar Saba Kings
15	Yann Raskin	R	184 cm	77 kg	(2005-06-22) 22 June 2005	Ayr Centennials
23	Ori Segal	L	173 cm	78 kg	(2004-05-08) 8 May 2004	Walpole Express
17	Ilya Spektor	L	171 cm	86 kg	(1996-04-10) 10 April 1996	Kfar Saba Kings
6	Itay Vaitz	R	185 cm	75 kg	(2001-05-22) 22 May 2001	LeKi-75
19	Viktor Vorobiev	L	182 cm	86 kg	(1987-05-24) 24 May 1987	Kfar Saba Kings

Coaches

List of coaches for each tournament^[34]

Period	Name
1992–1993	Gideon Lee
1994	Marshall Uretsky
1995	Semyon Yakubovich
1996–1997	Nikolai Epshtein
1998	Lev Sudat
1999–2000	Sergei Matin
2001–2004	Boris Mindel
2005–2009	Jean Perron
2010	Boris Mindel
2011	Sergei Belo
2012–2014	Jean Perron
2015–2017	Derek Eisler
2018	Semyon Yakubovich
2019–2021	Bobby Holík
2022–present	Ty Newberry

All-time record against other nations

As of 30 April 2022

Team	GP	W	T	L	GF	GA
Australia	12	5	0	7	44	58
Belgium	15	6	1	8	46	60
Bulgaria	11	6	2	3	50	36
China	9	1	0	8	25	58
Croatia	5	0	0	5	5	36
Estonia	5	0	0	5	9	79
France	1	0	0	1	0	9
Georgia	1	1	0	0	7	2
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	10	6	0	4	44	29
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	7	2	0	5	19	39
South Africa	8	7	0	1	46	21
South Korea	4	0	1	3	11	23
Spain	8	1	1	6	15	68
Turkey	8	8	0	0	78	11
Ukraine	1	0	0	1	0	29
Total	155	66	9	80	631	832

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Israel men's national ice hockey team.

• IIHF profile