‘Room for Improvement’ Australia finish 4th at Under 20 IIHF Worlds

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Australia have stayed up in Division 2B at the IIHF World Championships in Serbia last week, with some feeling their fortunes should have fared better.

After an up and down tournament, the Mighty Bucks finished 4^th with 2 wins from 5 games played.

Australia started the tournament off on the back foot with a couple of tough losses against Israel and Spain, before a 5-4 win over Iceland in the third game to get them back on track. After a hard loss to hosts Serbia, the Bucks bounced back with a big 8-1 win over Belgium in the final game of the tournament and secured a place in the division for 2026.

The Sydney Ice Dogs’ Ivan Kuleshov and Perth Thunder’s Brayden Maybee finished 3^rd and 4^th respectively in tournament scoring, netting 5 goals each. The Melbourne Ice’s Tom Forrest finished with a GAA of 2.88 and a Save Percentage of 89.60 in 5 games between the pipes.

Spain were promoted after winning the group while Belgium are relegated to Division 3.



Assistant Coach Jason Kvisle said that the team did well but there was a lot more work to be done.

“I think we got a good result in the end but frankly, we’re not happy with the result and the Serbian game really frustrated us,” Kvisle said.

“In my opinion we underperformed, but in the end it was a good outcome. We would have at least liked to have been among the medals.”

“The win over Iceland was pivotal as we dug ourselves a hole for 40 minutes and then managed to climb ourselves out of it for the win and stay in contention.”

“I think we just started slow and it took us about 15 minutes to get going each game. Moving the pieces around all the time is a bit disruptive and trying to find chemistry among guys is difficult in such a short timeframe.”

Kvisle stated that the lack of formal preparation games in the lead-up to the tournament is a large factor in determining the teams’ success.

“We need at least a minimum of two exhibition games before the tournament begins. This time we only had one against one of the Swiss teams. We had another one lined up but in the end they didn’t want to play us.”

“The facilities at the AIS are sensational and they were really accommodating but we need to go somewhere where our hockey needs, in terms of preparation against other quality teams and going to that next level, are really going to be met.”



Kvisle also had high praise for the team staff off of the ice.

“Everyone worked hard and made it happen off of the ice. Our medic Tristan did a great job. We were injury free for the whole tournament aside from a few niggles here and there.”

The date and location of the 2026 IIHF World Championships will be announced at the IIHF World Congress later this year.