2021 IIHF: Kazakhstan Men’s National Ice Hockey Team preview, live stream, statistics, roster, schedule and more

Much noise is being made about Kazakhstan’s return to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship in 2021, and rightfully so. It’s been five years since the Kazakhs played in the tournament; reaching Latvia was the first step needed to chase a medal. The absence, however, means that there is a lot of inexperience in this environment, which may not bode well. Regardless, it should be entertaining to see how they grow through adversity.

Five years is a long time. While it was possible to return some players from the last team in 2016 Kazakhstan didn’t. Instead, they are rolling out a roster full of young players in their early 20s. Kazakhstan hasn’t reached the podium in program history, but that’s a long shot this year for a team that would call the playoffs an extreme success.

Tournament Details

Preview

Kazakhstan has played spoiler early at the 2021 World Championship on their way to a 2-0 start in Latvia. In their first game, they had to handle a Latvian team that was entering high after upsetting Canada the night before. Kazakhstan took that one in a shootout. They then came back on Sunday and defeated Finland, who entered the tournament as the top-ranked team in the power rankings. If there’s a year for Kazakhstan to bottle some magic to make a medal run, this may be it.

2021 Kazakhstan IIHF World Championship Roster

Kazakhstan Prelims Schedule

Kazakhstan is competing in Group B and will play each other team in the group in the preliminary round. All Group B games are played at the Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia.