The New Zealand men's national ice hockey team is the national

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

team for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. As of 2018, the New Zealand team is ranked 39th in the

IIHF World Ranking The IIHF World Ranking is a ranking of the performance of the national ice hockey teams of member countries of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It is based on a formula giving points for each team's placings at IIHF-sanctioned tour ...

s. The official nickname of New Zealand's national ice hockey team is the Ice Blacks. The "Ice Blacks" nickname is one of many national team nicknames related to the All Blacks.

History

The 2016 documentary film "Ice Blacks" covers the history of the team, their rivalry with Australia and their difficulties in competing at international level because of New Zealand's geographic distance from the rest of the traditional ice hockey playing countries. New Zealand has competed in the Division II World Championships since 2001. From 2007 to 2011, New Zealand was coached by Jeff Bonazzo. In his last year coaching at the 2011 Division II World Championships, New Zealand won three games and lost two, finishing second in their group behind host nation and rival Australia and missing promotion to Division I. New Zealand hosted the

2003 IIHF World Championship Division III The 2003 IIHF World Championship Division III was an international ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The tournament was contested on 3–6 April 2003 in Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand won the championshi ...

, which was held in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

. The Ice Blacks finished first and captured their first gold medal and were promoted to Division II. New Zealand hosted the 2006 IIHF World Championship Division II Group B, which was held in

. The Ice Blacks finished last and were relegated to

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

. New Zealand hosted the

2009 IIHF World Championship Division III The 2009 IIHF World Championship Division III was an international ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs ...

, which was held in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. The Ice Blacks finished first and captured their third gold medal by winning all five games and were promoted to Division II. New Zealand hosted the

2017 IIHF World Championship Division II The 2017 IIHF World Championship Division II was an international ice hockey tournament run by the Zurich, Switzerland-based International Ice Hockey Federation. Group A was contested in Galati, Romania from 3 to 9 April 2017 and Group B in Auck ...

Group B, which was held in

. The Ice Blacks finished second behind China, capturing their fourth silver medal.

Tournament record

New Zealand Winter Games

World Championship record

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

– 27th place (3rd in "Pool D") *

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

– 29th place (5th in "Pool D") *

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

– 39th place (10th in "Pool C2") * 1996 – Not ranked (2nd in "Pool D" group 1 qualifier) * 1997 – Not ranked (2nd in unofficial "Pool E") *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

– 38th place (6th in "Pool D") * 1999 – 38th place (6th in "Pool D") *

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

– 39th place (6th in "Pool D") * 2001 – 39th place (5th in Division II Group A) * 2002 – 43rd place (3rd in Division II qualification) * 2003 – 41st place (1st in Division III) * 2004 – 37th place (5th in Division II Group B) * 2005 – 38th place (5th in Division II Group A) * 2006 – 39th place (6th in Division II Group B) * 2007 – 41st place (1st in Division III) * 2008 – 39th place (6th in Division II Group B) * 2009 – 41st place (1st in Division III) * 2010 – 36th place (4th in Division II Group B) * 2011 – 32nd place (2nd in Division II Group A) *

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

– 34th place (6th in Division II Group A) *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

– 36th place (2nd in Division II Group B) *

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

– 37th place (3rd in Division II Group B) * 2015 – 36th place (2nd in Division II Group B) *

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

– 38th place (4th in Division II Group B) *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

– 36th place (2nd in Division II Group B) *

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

– 36th place (2nd in Division II Group B) *

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

– 37th place (3rd in Division II Group B) *

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

– Cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

– Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

– Withdrawn due to the COVID-19 pandemic

All-time record against other nations

''As of 8 September 2018''

All-time record against other clubs

''As of 15 April 2019''

References

External links

Official websiteIIHF profile
{{Ice hockey in New Zealand National ice hockey teams in Oceania Ice hockey teams in New Zealand