2026 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships – Division II

See also: 2026 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

2026 IIHF U20 World Championship
Division II

Tournament details
Host countries	Romania   Serbia
Venues	2 (in 2 host cities)
Dates	4–10 January 2026 18–24 January 2026
Teams	12
←  2025 2027  →

The 2026 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship Division II consists of two international under-20 ice hockey tournaments organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Division II A represents the fourth tier and Division II B the fifth tier of the IIHF World Junior Championship. For each tier, the first-placed team is promoted to the next higher tier, while the last-placed team is relegated to the next lower tier.

To be eligible as a junior player in these tournaments, a player couldn't be born earlier than 2005.

Division II A

2026 IIHF U20 World Championship
Division II A

Tournament details
Host country	Romania
City	Bucharest
Venue	1 (in 1 host city)
Dates	4–10 January 2026
Teams	6
Tournament statistics
Games played	15
Goals scored	108 (7.2 per game)
Attendance	8,601 (573 per game)
Scoring leader	Kim Jung-jun (15 points)
Official website
www.iihf.com

The Division II A tournament was played in Bucharest, Romania, from 4 to 10 January 2026. ^{[1] [2]}

Participating teams

Team	Qualification
South Korea	placed 6th in Division I B last year and were relegated
Romania (hosts)	placed 2nd in Division II A last year
Croatia	placed 3rd in Division II A last year
Great Britain	placed 4th in Division II A last year
China	placed 5th in Division II A last year
Spain	placed 1st in Division II B last year and were promoted

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	South Korea	5	5	0	0	0	33	6	+27	15	Promotion to the 2027 Division I B
2	Great Britain	5	3	1	0	1	15	13	+2	11
3	Croatia	5	2	1	0	2	18	27	−9	8
4	Romania (H)	5	1	1	1	2	16	19	−3	6
5	China	5	1	0	2	2	15	18	−3	5
6	Spain	5	0	0	0	5	11	25	−14	0	Relegation to the 2027 Division II B

Source: IIHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) result against closest best-ranked team outside tied teams; 6) result against next best-ranked team outside tied teams; 7) seeding before tournament. ^{[3] [4]}
(H) Host

Results

All times are local, EET (UTC+2).

4 January 2026 12:30

Croatia

2–12 (1–1, 0–5, 1–6)

South Korea

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 520

Game reference
	Niksa Slade Borna Jurin	Goalies	Park Sang-woo Koh Taeyi	Referees: Kristoffer Folkstrand Oliver Trusswell Linesmen: Barna Borsos Frantisek Stepanek
	0–1 03:37 – Lee J. (Kim Ju., Lee G.) (PP) Alic (Idzan) – 14:45 1–1 1–2 24:33 – Kim B. (Lim S.) 1–3 27:31 – Kim Ju. (Park S., Lim K.) 1–4 30:17 – Kim Da. (Lee G., Kim Ju.) (SH) 1–5 37:29 – Kim Da. (Lee G., Kim Ju.) (PP2) 1–6 39:43 – Yoo (Park S.) 1–7 40:13 – Kim Do. (Kim Da., Kim Ju.) Kurjakovic (Idzan) – 40:38 2–7 2–8 44:28 – Lee J. (SH) 2–9 49:17 – Yoo (Jung M., Kim Jian) 2–10 50:09 – Kim Jian (Kim Jih.) 2–11 51:00 – Kim K. (Kim Da., Kim Ju.) 2–12 51:22 – Lee G. (Kim K.)
	35 min	Penalties	12 min
	10	Shots	47

4 January 2026 16:00

Spain

3–4 (1–1, 1–2, 1–1)

Great Britain

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 530

Game reference
	Guillermo Esteban	Goalies	Benjamin Clark Leech	Referees: Juraj Konc Jakob Schauer Linesmen: Jonas Reinold Andreas Vyssios
	0–1 06:53 – Misins (Yates, Henderson) (PP) Lacasta (Morillas, Gonzalez) – 18:24 1–1 1–2 26:36 – Henderson (Lynch) 1–3 31:51 – Yates (Oksanen, Kay) Perez (Sanz, Perez-Santamarina) (PP) – 39:14 2–3 2–4 52:21 – Capps (Bennett) Gonzalez (Mazon) – 59:30 3–4
	6 min	Penalties	8 min
	19	Shots	47

4 January 2026 19:30

Romania

4–3 GWS (2–1, 0–2, 1–0) (OT: 0–0) (SO: 1–0)

China

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 708

Game reference
	Hunor Gergely	Goalies	Zhang Youyi	Referees: Oleg Serebriakov Davis Zunde Linesmen: Andries Gheorghies Eryk Sztwiertnia
	Marton (Szekeres) (PP) – 03:14 1–0 1–1 04:27 – Guo (Xu) Marton (Szekeres, Agoston) (PP) – 07:34 2–1 2–2 22:13 – Tian (Zhao, Huang) 2–3 34:47 – Tian (Zhao) Kovacs (Bolocan) – 47:53 3–3
	Bolocan Marton Kovacs Moise Nagy Moise Marton Timaru	Shootout	Gao Xu Tian Guo Jiang S.X. Xu Xu Jiang S.X.
	6 min	Penalties	32 min
	39	Shots	24

---

5 January 2026 12:30

South Korea

4–0 (2–0, 1–0, 1–0)

Great Britain

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 380

Game reference
	Park Sang-woo	Goalies	Benjamin Clark Leech	Referees: Juraj Konc Oleg Serebriakov Linesmen: Thomas Dockery Andries Gheorghies
	Kim K. (Sol E.) – 01:58 1–0 Lim S. (Kim B., Yoo) – 12:53 (PP) 2–0 Kim Do. (Kim Da., Kim Ju.) – 25:07 (PP) 3–0 Kim Do. (Kim Da., (Kim Ju.) – 43:13 4–0
	16 min	Penalties	12 min
	37	Shots	28

5 January 2026 16:00

China

5–2 (1–1, 3–0, 1–1)

Spain

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 510

Game reference
	Zhang Youyi	Goalies	Albert Bosch	Referees: Kristoffer Folkstrand Oliver Trusswell Linesmen: Barna Borsos Frantisek Stepanek
	Huang (Zhao, Tian) – 09:17 1–0 1–1 19:12 – Cabello (Perez) Jiang S.X. (Xu, Gao) – 20:45 2–1 Jiang (Gao, Guo) – 24:16 (PP) 3–1 Wen J. (Guo) – 38:05 4–1 4–2 41:12 – Gonzalez (Garkusha, Perez) Xu – 56:34 5–2
	10 min	Penalties	37 min
	45	Shots	30

5 January 2026 19:30

Romania

5–6 OT (0–1, 4–2, 1–2) (OT: 0–1)

Croatia

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 780

Game reference
	Hunor Gergely	Goalies	Niksa Slade	Referees: David Elford Jakob Schauer Linesmen: Jonas Reinold Andreas Vyssios
	0–1 17:30 – Idzan (Gorsic, Zovko) (PP) Bolocan (Moise) – 21:49 1–1 Marton (Agoston, Bolocan) (PP) – 25:38 2–1 2–2 27:48 – Marojevic (Gorsic, Svjetlicic) (PP) Bolocan – 31:56 3–2 3–3 36:07 – Idzan (Kurjakovic, Zlatar) Moise (Timaru, Nagy) (PP) – 38:51 4–3 Marton (Bolocan) – 44:54 5–3 5–4 49:17 – Gorsic (Svircic, Martinec) 5–5 55:13 – Svjetlicic (Idzan, Gorsic) (PP) 5–6 64:20 – Idzan (Gorsic)
	12 min	Penalties	10 min
	36	Shots	39

---

7 January 2026 12:30

South Korea

4–1 (3–0, 0–0, 1–1)

China

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 580

Game reference
	Park Sang-woo	Goalies	Wen Jiayou	Referees: David Elford Jakob Schauer Linesmen: Jonas Reinold Eryk Sztwiertnia
	Lim S. (Kim B.) (SH) – 13:26 1–0 Jung M. (Park S., Kim Jian) – 15:23 2–0 Kim B. (Kim Ju., Kim Do.) – 18:29 3–0 3–1 48:55 – Wen J.H. (Zhao) Kang (Lee J., Kim K.) – 55:30 4–1
	6 min	Penalties	12 min
	35	Shots	19

7 January 2026 16:00

Croatia

2–5 (0–1, 1–1, 1–3)

Great Britain

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 590

Game reference
	Niksa Slade	Goalies	Benjamin Clark Leech	Referees: Kristoffer Folkstrand Davis Zunde Linesmen: Andries Gheorghies Frantisek Stepanek
	0–1 08:17 – Clarke (Capps, Bruton) 0–2 36:44 – Yates (Carruth) Zovko – 39:38 1–2 Gorsic (Martinec) (SH) – 46:26 2–2 2–3 48:16 – Lipsey (Kynaston) 2–4 50:25 – Capps (Clarke) (PP) 2–5 57:15 – Misins (SH, ENG)
	12 min	Penalties	12 min
	28	Shots	43

7 January 2026 19:30

Romania

4–3 (0–0, 2–2, 2–1)

Spain

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 783

Game reference
	Calin Mardale	Goalies	Guillermo Esteban	Referees: Juraj Konc Oliver Trusswell Linesmen: Barna Borsos Thomas Dockery
	0–1 20:54 – Morillas (PP) Nagy (Moise, Mathe) (PP) – 28:29 1–1 1–2 30:57 – Martinez (Segurola) Kovacs (Janos) – 33:42 2–2 2–3 40:49 – Garkusha (Perez-Santamarina, Cabello) (PP) Timaru (Nechita, Mic) – 46:48 3–3 Kovacs (Agoston, Salamon) – 49:12 4–3
	35 min	Penalties	14 min
	48	Shots	21

---

8 January 2026 12:30

China

3–4 (1–1, 1–1, 1–2)

Croatia

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 117

Game reference
	Zhang Youyi	Goalies	Niksa Slade	Referees: Juraj Konc Oleg Serebriakov Linesmen: Thomas Dockery Andreas Vyssios
	0–1 07:36 – Idzan (Gorsic) Wen J.H. (Wen X., Jiang W.H.) (PP) – 13:36 1–1 1–2 32:59 – Idzan (Pranjic) Guo (Weng X.) – 33:52 2–2 2– 3 50:52 – Marojevic (Pranjic) 2–4 54:01 – Idzan (Gorsic) Huang (Xu, Wen X.) – 57:23 3–4
	16 min	Penalties	8 min
	31	Shots	27

8 January 2026 16:00

Spain

1–8 (0–4, 1–3, 0–1)

South Korea

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 538

Game reference
	Albert Bosch	Goalies	Park Sang-woo Lee Wook-young	Referees: Jakob Schauer Davis Zunde Linesmen: Andries Gheorghies Jonas Reinold
	0–1 01:05 – Kim K. (Lee J., Lim S.) 0–2 14:07 – Kim Do. (Kim Ju., Kim B.) 0–3 14:47 – Kim B. (Kim Ju., Park S.) 0–4 16:06 – Kim Jian (Sol E., Jung M.) Perez – 22:01 1–4 1–5 27:10 – Kim Do. (Kim B., Kim Ju.) 1–6 33:27 – Lim S. (Kim Jian, Kim Jih.) 1–7 37:38 – Park Ji. (Kang, Lee J.) 1–8 41:14 – Lee J. (Park S., Kim K.) (SH)
	16 min	Penalties	8 min
	21	Shots	59

8 January 2026 19:30

Great Britain

2–1 (1–0, 1–0, 0–1)

Romania

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 710

Game reference
	Benjamin Clark Leech	Goalies	Calin Mardale	Referees: David Elford Kristoffer Folkstrand Linesmen: Frantisek Stepanek Eryk Sztwiertnia
	Capps (Carruth, Vengis) (PP) – 04:35 1–0 Yates (Rushby, Clarke) (PP) – 25:05 2–0 2–1 52:51 – Kovacs (Nechita, Timaru
	8 min	Penalties	12 min
	32	Shots	39

---

10 January 2026 12:30

Great Britain

4–3 OT (1–1, 2–1, 0–1) (OT: 1–0)

China

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 490

Game reference
	Benjamin Clark Leech	Goalies	Wen Jiayou	Referees: David Elford Oliver Trusswell Linesmen: Barna Borsos Jonas Reinold
	0–1 03:48 – Wen (Zhao) Carruth (Bradley, Yates) – 07:03 1–1 Yates (Lynch, Carruth) – 25:07 2–1 Capps (Clarke, Rimko) (PP) – 33:58 3–1 3–2 37:01 – Sun (Xu, Geng) (PP) 3–3 42:28 – Zhao (Jin) Capps – 61:29 4–3
	8 min	Penalties	12 min
	43	Shots	20

10 January 2026 16:00

Croatia

4–2 (0–1, 1–0, 3–1)

Spain

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 570

Game reference
	Niksa Slade	Goalies	Albert Bosch Guillermo Esteban	Referees: Oleg Serebriakov Davis Zunde Linesmen: Thomas Dockery Eryk Sztwiertnia
	0–1 06:52 – Sanz (Perez, Fernandez) (PP) Gorsic (Zovko) (PP) – 37:54 1–1 Gorsic (Ferencina, Ivanus) – 49:52 2–1 Alic (Ferencina) – 52:04 3–1 3–2 57:44 – Garkusha (Perez, Gonzalez) (PP, EA) Alic (Zovko) – 58:15 4–2
	16 min	Penalties	28 min
	36	Shots	30

10 January 2026 19:30

South Korea

5–2 (2–1, 2–1, 1–0)

Romania

Berceni Arena, Bucharest Attendance: 795

Game reference
	Park Sang-woo	Goalies	Calin Mardale	Referees: Kristoffer Folkstrand Juraj Konc Linesmen: Frantisek Stepanek Andreas Vyssios
	0–1 07:24 – M. Janos (D. Janos, Lusztig) Lee J. (Yoo, Lee S.) – 08:38 1–1 Kim B. (Kim Ju.) – 10:44 2–1 2–2 21:05 – Nagy (Timaru, Mathe) (PP) Lee G. (Kim B., Kim Ju.) (PP) – 27:12 3–2 Kim Jian (Park J., Jung M.) – 29:31 4–2 Kim Ju. (Kim B., Kim Ji.) (ENG) – 57:34 5–2
	20 min	Penalties	16 min
	29	Shots	21

Statistics

Top 10 scorers

Pos	Player	Country	GP	G	A	Pts	+/–	PIM
1	Kim Jung-jun	South Korea	5	2	13	15	+11	0
2	Roko Goršič	Croatia	5	4	7	11	–1	10
3	Matko Idžan	Croatia	5	6	4	10	–1	4
4	Kim Beom-su	South Korea	5	4	6	10	+8	2
5	Lee Jun-seo	South Korea	5	4	3	7	+6	6
6	Brynley Capps	Great Britain	5	5	1	6	0	6
6	Kim Do-hyun	South Korea	5	5	1	6	+6	10
8	Bailey Yates	Great Britain	5	4	2	6	0	2
9	Kim Jian	South Korea	5	3	3	6	+5	4
9	Kim Kwan-yu	South Korea	5	3	3	6	+6	2
9	Lim Sung-kyu	South Korea	5	3	3	6	+7	16

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = P Plus–minus; PIM = Penalties In Minutes
Source: IIHF

Goaltending leaders

(minimum 40% team's total ice time)

Pos	Player	Country	TOI	GA	Sv%	GAA	SO
1	Park Sang-woo	South Korea	260:00	5	93.90	1.15	1
2	Benjamin Clark Leach	Great Britain	301:29	13	90.85	2.59	0
3	Zhang Youyi	China	181:49	9	90.43	2.97	0
4	Guillermo Esteban	Spain	146:59	12	89.83	4.90	0
5	Calin Mardale	Romania	178:27	9	88.89	3.03	0

TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts
Source: IIHF

Best Players Selected by the Directorate

• Goaltender: Benjamin Clark Leach
• Defenceman: Roko Goršič
• Forward: Kim Jung-jun

Source: IIHF

Division II B

2026 IIHF U20 World Championship
Division II B

Tournament details
Host country	Serbia
City	Belgrade
Venue	1 (in 1 host city)
Dates	18–24 January 2026
Teams	6
Official website
www.iihf.com

The Division II B tournament will be played in Belgrade, Serbia, from 18 to 24 January 2026. ^{[5] [6]}

Participating teams

Team	Qualification
Netherlands	placed 6th in Division II A last year and were relegated
Israel	placed 2nd in Division II B last year
Serbia (hosts)	placed 3rd in Division II B last year
Australia	placed 4th in Division II B last year
Iceland	placed 5th in Division II B last year
New Zealand	placed 1st in Division III A last year and were promoted

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Netherlands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Promotion to the 2027 Division II A
2	Israel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Serbia (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Australia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Iceland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	New Zealand	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Relegation to the 2027 Division III A

First match(es) will be played: 18 January 2026. Source: IIHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) result against closest best-ranked team outside tied teams; 6) result against next best-ranked team outside tied teams; 7) seeding before tournament. ^{[3] [4]}
(H) Host

Results

All times are local, CET (UTC+1).

18 January 2026 12:30

New Zealand

v

Australia

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

18 January 2026 16:00

Israel

v

Iceland

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

18 January 2026 19:30

Serbia

v

Netherlands

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

---

19 January 2026 12:30

Iceland

v

New Zealand

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

19 January 2026 16:00

Netherlands

v

Australia

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

19 January 2026 19:30

Israel

v

Serbia

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

---

21 January 2026 12:30

Netherlands

v

Iceland

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

21 January 2026 16:00

Israel

v

New Zealand

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

21 January 2026 19:30

Serbia

v

Australia

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

---

22 January 2026 12:30

New Zealand

v

Netherlands

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

22 January 2026 16:00

Australia

v

Israel

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

22 January 2026 19:30

Iceland

v

Serbia

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

---

24 January 2026 12:30

Australia

v

Iceland

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

24 January 2026 16:00

Netherlands

v

Israel

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

24 January 2026 19:30

Serbia

v

New Zealand

Pionir Ice Hall, Belgrade

References

1. Division II A official website, www.iihf.com
2. Division II A statistics, stats.iihf.com
3. "IIHF Divisions World Championships Event Code" (PDF). IIHF. Retrieved December 25, 2025.
4. "IIHF - Tournament Info 2026 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP". IIHF. Retrieved December 25, 2025.
5. Division II B official website, www.iihf.com
6. Division II B statistics, stats.iihf.com

External links

• Official website of IIHF