Georgia men's national ice hockey team

Ice hockey was introduced in Georgia in the 1960s, part of a Soviet policy to introduce winter sports across the country. A trainer from Moscow, Valentin Zakharov, was sent to Georgia to train youth in the sport. As Tbilisi, the capital, had no rink, most of the initial exercises involved dry-land training.[2] As the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Georgia played its first game in 1962 during the Winter Spartakiad which was held in Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union. Georgia played seven games, winning their matches against the Kirghiz SSR and the Armenian SSR, while losing the remaining games to the Lithuanian SSR twice, the Kazakh SSR, the Estonian SSR and the Latvian SSR.[3]

Zakharov left Georgia in 1966, and hockey effectively ended in Georgia. It was revived in 1978 by one of Zakharov's students, Nodar Donadze, who established a club in Tbilisi. This saw some further developments, with one player, goaltender Kote Bakhutashvili, invited to join the youth development team of CSKA Moscow, the dominant team in the Soviet league, in the late 1980s; however it was ultimately ended in 1987.[2] As ice hockey was not popular in Georgia, an ice rink built in Tbilisi was demolished in the post-Soviet era.[4]

Georgia and Greece during the 2013 World Championship Division III Qualification. Greece won the match, 13–0.

Two students of Donadze, Denis Davidov and Lasha Tsagareishvili, established the Georgian Ice Hockey Federation in 2004.[2][4] A national league was started in 2007.[5] In 2009 Georgia joined the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) as an associate member.[6] Shortly after being accepted into the IIHF both Davidov and Tsagareishvili, along with four others (including the president of the Ice Hockey Federation of Armenia) were killed in a car accident in Turkey, forcing the Georgian Ice Hockey Federation to delay plans to start a national team.[7]

Georgia first played an international match in 2010, when they travelled to Yerevan, Armenia, which was hosting the 2010 Division III World Championship. They played exhibition games against South Africa and Armenia, losing 8–1 and 22–1, respectively.[3] Georgia made their debut in the World Championship in 2012, playing in the 2013 Division III Qualification tournament held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. They lost all three games, being outscored 28 goals to one (Gocha Jeiranashvili scored the lone goal, Georgia's first in IIHF play, in the final game against the United Arab Emirates), and failed to qualify for the Division III tournament.[8] The following year Georgia was placed in Division III, as several teams did not participate. They scored three goals and gave up seventy-eight in the five games, all losses.[9][10] The 2015 Division III tournament saw Georgia record their first win, against Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by an overtime victory against the United Arab Emirates. The fourth-place finish was considered a great success, and credited to new players: Vitali Dumbadze and Dimitri Smetanin scored 17 of Georgia's 20 goals, while Andrei Ilienko was named the top goaltender of the tournament.[11]

In October 2015 Georgia participated in the first game of the 2018 Winter Olympic qualification tournament, against Bulgaria, losing the match 9–1.[12] Funding from the Georgian government came for the first time in 2015; prior to that the players and management had to pay all expenses.[7] In the 2016 Division III tournament, they finished second after winning four games out of five, only losing to Turkey 5–4, and having the tournament's leading scorer, Boris Kochkin (who had 10 goals and 9 assists).[13] However, all their matches were later nullified and the results recorded as 5–0 forfeits due to Georgia's use of ineligible players.[14] At the 2017 Division III tournament they placed third, winning three of their five games.[15] Five Georgians placed in the top ten scorers, including Artem Kozyulin in first with 25 points (13 goals and 12 assists), while Artem Kurbatov was named the tournament's best defeceman.[16][17] In the 2018 Division III tournament, they finished first after winning four games out of five, losing one game to South Africa 4–2. Five of the top ten scorers in the tournament were from the Georgian team, including Aleksandr Zhuzhunashvili, who led the tournament in goals (10), assists (9), and points (19), and was named the best forward.[18][19] For the first time, Georgia earned promotion to Division IIB for 2019. The result was attributed to a policy of naturalization: three of the top five scorers had Russian or Ukrainian surnames, while all five learned hockey outside of Georgia.[20] The result had Georgia place 40th in the IIHF World Ranking, their highest spot to date.[21]