From 29 April to 5 May the national team of Kazakhstan will fight for getting into top-level World Championship at the Barys Arena. Let's remember all World Championships in which the Kazakhs played among the strongest teams. That happened eight times.
Switzerland 1998
To Switzerland Boris Alexandrov's team arrived to the World Championship after the success at the Olympic Games when Kazakhstan had a top-8 finish. Still this achievement is the best in the history of the national team of Kazakhstan. The Olympic Games in Nagano became the first one when the NHL let its players participate for the first time. The national team of Kazakhstan, however, included players from just one club – Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk.The debut World Championship for Kazakhstan was not as successful. Many leaders didn’t manage to participate and the team lost all the games and took the 15th place from 16 participants. The tournament began with defeat against the Russians (4-8), continued dry losses against Finland (0-4) and Latvia (2-7).
Czech Republic 2004
In 1999 in Russia number of imports in the league were limited. It strongly struck the national team of Kazakhstan. Many players had Russian citizenship as well and refused to play for the national team to keep their place in their Russian clubs.Only in 2004 did Kazakhstan have the next opportunity to play at the top-level World Championship. At a preliminary stage Kazakhstan lost all games again – 2-4 to Germany, 0-7 to the Czech Republic and 1-3 against Latvia. However, the national team managed to keep its spot at the Worlds. In the relegation round Kazakhstan won having beaten France (5-0), Japan (5-3) and achieved a tie with Ukraine (2-2).
Austria 2005
The next World Championship became the best in the history of the national team of Kazakhstan in spite of the fact that because of a lockout in the NHL the rivals managed to bring together the full-strength line-up. The first game of the tournament became key for the team. Kazakhstan beat Germany thanks to goals from Dmitri Upper and Yevgeni Koreshkov, 2:1. The remained matches of a preliminary round were lost, but with very tight scores – 1-2 against Switzerland and 0-1 against the eventual world champion Czech Republic.In the second round Kazakhstan lost to Belarus (0-2), Russia (1-3) and Slovakia (1-3) but reached 12th place out of 16 teams. So far it is the best result in the history of the national team of Kazakhstan.
Latvia 2006
That year for the first time one national team – Sweden – became the world champion and the winner of the Olympic Games. Kazakhstan also participated at the Games in Turin and finished in ninth place.The 98th World Championship was failure for the Kazakh team. In the preliminary round it suffered three defeats with a 2-23 goal difference. They lost to Russia (1-10), Slovakia (0-6) and Belarus (1-7). The relegation round was also not crowned with success. Kazakhstan crushed Slovenia (5-0) but suffered 2-3 losses to Italy and Denmark. As a result Kazakhstan took the 15th place and together with Slovenia was relegated.
Germany 2010
The following return to the top division came after four long years. However, in Germany Kazakhstan lost all games, took the last place and went down again. From this point the national team started a series of promotions and relegations and earned itself the fame of an elevator team. At a preliminary stage Kazakhstan was weaker than Belarus (2-5), Russia (1-4) and Slovakia (1-5) and in the relegation round lost to the United States (0-10), Italy (1-2) and France (3-5).Finland/Sweden 2012
Having returned to elite, Kazakhstan took the last place on a tournament again. The team managed to gather only one point. The United States only broke the resistance of the Kazakh national team in overtime to win 3-2. Otherwise the Kazakhs lost to Switzerland (1-5), France (3-6), Belarus (2-3), Slovakia (2-4), Canada (0-8), Finland (1-4) and descended to the Division I.Belarus 2014
The World Championship in Minsk did not become an exception to the rules for Kazakhstan. The team took last place and left the top level again. This time Kazakhstan earned two points. Against the United States they lost again in overtime (2-3) and against Germany in a shootout (1-2). In regulation time the national team of Kazakhstan lost to Belarus (1-4), Latvia (4-5), eventual world champion Russia (2-7), Switzerland (2-6) and Finland (3-4).Russia 2016
The last time the national team of Kazakhstan played among the elite nations was in Moscow. Andrei Nazarov's players went to the tournament with high expectations, the team had a dangerous line from Barys Astana of Bochenski-Boyd-Dawes. However, the naturalized North Americans couldn’t break the tradition of getting relegated. Last place and return to the Division I.The team could not return to the top neither in the 2017 nor in 2018.
Great hopes are laid on the next tournament when Kazakhstan will host the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A at the Barys Arena in Nur-Sultan.