The 2017 IIHF World Championship Division III was an international ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in Sofia, Bulgaria from 10 to 16 April 2017. Seven teams participated in the tournament, divided into two groups. Bosnia and Herzegovina was originally scheduled to participate, but withdrew before the tournament began; all their games were recorded as 5–0 forfeits for the opposing team. Luxembourg won the tournament, defeating Bulgaria 10–4 in the final, and played in Division IIB in 2018. Chinese Taipei debuted in Division III and, apart from defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina in a forfeit, recorded their first official win, beating the UAE 4–0 in the 5th place playoff.
Venues
The Bulgarian bid was the only contender for the 2017 IIHF World Championship Division III competition. It will mark the first time that this competition has been held in Bulgaria. In September 2016 the format of the division was realigned into one tournament with two preliminary divisions.
Participants
Match officials
5 referees and 9 linesmen were selected for the tournament.
Referees
Michał Baca
Miha Bajt
Ivan Fateyev
Cemal Ersin Kaya
Kim No-su
Linesmen
Ferhat Aygün
Christian Cristeli
Illya Khokhlov
Aleh Kliashcheunikau
Jonas Merten
Jakob Schauer
Luchezar Stoyanov
Gil Haim Tichon
Wiktor Zień
Preliminary round
All times are local (UTC+3).
Group A
Group B
Knockout stage
Bracket
5th place bracket
5th–7th place semifinal
Semifinals
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Final ranking
(H) Host; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated.Source: IIHF.com
Awards and statistics
Awards
Best players selected by the directorate: Best Goaltender: Liao Yu-cheng Best Defenceman: Artem Kurbatov Best Forward: Robert Beran Source: IIHF.com
Scoring leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position Source: IIHF.com
Goaltending leaders
Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list.
TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts Source: IIHF.com