Romania men's national ice hockey team

Romania
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s) Tricolori (Three Colors)
Association Romanian Ice Hockey Federation
General manager Alexandru Hălăucă
Head coach Július Pénzeš
Assistants Nelu Alexe
Norbert Javorčík
Captain Alpár Salló
Most games Doru Tureanu (113)
Top scorer Doru Tureanu (74)
Most points Doru Tureanu (112)
Team colors      
IIHF code ROU
Ranking
Current IIHF 23 Increase 1 (28 May 2023)
Highest IIHF 24 (2021)
Lowest IIHF 29 (first in 2016)
First international
United States 15–0 Romania
(Krynica, Poland; 2 February 1931)
Biggest win
Romania 52–1 New Zealand
(Geel or Heist-op-den-Berg, Belgium; 19 March 1989)
Biggest defeat
Czechoslovakia 23–1 Romania
(Prague, Czechoslovakia; 17 February 1947)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances 54 (first in 1931)
Best result 7th (1947)
Olympics
Appearances 4 (first in 1964)
International record (W–L–T)
332–379–57

The Romanian men's national ice hockey team is the national men's ice hockey of Romania, and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. They are currently ranked 27th in the 2019 IIHF World Rankings and currently compete in Division IA. They have competed in four Olympic ice hockey competitions, the most recent being in 1980.

Olympic Games

Romania started Olympic hockey in 1964 in the B division. In the tournament, the team finished 12th out of 16 teams and managed 3 wins against Austria, Italy, and Hungary also with a tie against Yugoslavia.

In 1968, Romania lost its qualification match against West Germany 7–0 and was forced to compete in the B division again. In the first two games, Romania beat Austria 3–2 and the Host, France 7–3. They lost their next three games and finished 12th out of 14 in the standings.

After skipping the 1972 competition, Romania returned for the 1976 tournament. This time Romania played Poland in the Qualification round and lost 7–4, keeping them in the B division once again. However, Romania battled back and won 4 of 5 games with only one loss against Yugoslavia, still winning the division. The team finished 7th out of 12.

In 1980, Romania was able to play with the top teams and was put into the Blue Division group, along with tough opponents such as Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and USA. In the first game Romania was down 4–2 to West Germany, but managed to score 4 goals to beat the former bronze medallists 6–4. In their next game Romania got shut out by Sweden 8–0. The Swedes scored 3 goals in the first period which left Romania out of it. After a lopsided loss to Czechoslovakia (7–2) the team then took on USA. The US jumped out to a 2–0 lead in the first period and added two more to it to lead 4–1 after two periods. Unlike other teams that the US had faced, the Romanians fought strong in the third period, despite being outshot 15–3, and scored a goal. The final score was 7–2. Romania played Norway for their final game, who had lost all four of their past games and had no chance to advance to the Medal Round. Romania fell behind less than a minute into the game, but stormed back to take the lead 3–1 in the third period. The Norwegian team battled back though, and scored once with a minute and a half left to play, and scored once more to tie it with only 29 seconds left. This tie still gave Romania one point but they had been hoping for a win. They finished the tournament with a 1–3–1 record, and were ranked 8th out of 12, just beating the Netherlands, West Germany, Norway, and Japan. This was the last time that the Romanians competed in the Olympic tournaments.

Tournament record

Postage stamp from Romania, 1980 Winter Olympics
Romanian national team in 2019

Olympic record

Games GP W OW T OL L GF GA Coach Captain Finish Rank
1964 Innsbruck 7 3 0 1 0 3 31 28 - - Consolation round (Group B) 12th
1968 Grenoble 5 2 0 0 0 3 22 23 - - Consolation round (Group B) 12th
1972 Sapporo Did not qualify
1976 Innsbruck 5 4 0 0 0 1 23 15 - - Consolation round 7th
1980 Lake Placid 5 1 0 1 0 3 13 29 - - First round 8th
1984 Sarajevo Did not qualify
1988 Calgary Did not qualify
1992 Albertville Did not qualify
1994 Lillehammer Did not qualify
1998 Nagano Did not qualify
2002 Salt Lake City Did not qualify
2006 Turin Did not qualify
2010 Vancouver Did not qualify
2014 Sochi Did not qualify
2018 Pyeongchang Did not qualify
2022 Beijing Did not qualify
2026 Milan-Cortina 2026 To be determined

World Championship

Winter Universiade

  • 1966 – 2nd place (Silver medal)
  • 1983 – 3rd place (Bronze medal)

All-time record

Updated as of 5 May 2023. Teams in italics are defunct.

Opponent Played Won Drawn Lost GF GA GD
Australia 3 3 0 0 15 5 +10
Austria 29 14 2 13 104 130 –26
Belarus 1 0 0 1 3 5 –2
Belgium 15 15 0 0 133 24 +109
Bulgaria 40 34 2 4 249 91 +158
Canada 4 0 0 4 3 29 –26
China 23 18 2 3 131 68 +63
Croatia 13 7 1 5 52 41 +11
Czechoslovakia 8 0 0 8 6 78 –72
Denmark 20 10 1 9 80 75 +5
East Germany 43 4 2 37 91 264 –173
Estonia 12 5 0 7 50 43 +7
Finland 4 1 1 2 16 27 –11
France 28 12 4 12 139 114 +25
Germany 21 4 0 17 57 100 –43
Great Britain 25 4 1 20 59 131 –72
Hungary 68 39 5 24 290 239 +51
Iceland 5 4 0 1 25 10 +15
Ireland 2 2 0 0 43 1 +42
Israel 4 4 0 0 55 2 +53
Italy 27 11 3 13 91 114 –23
Japan 30 11 2 17 109 138 –29
Kazakhstan 6 2 0 4 11 30 –19
Kyrgyzstan 1 1 0 0 18 2 +16
Latvia 8 2 0 6 7 49 –42
Lithuania 16 8 1 7 56 59 –3
Mexico 1 1 0 0 19 0 +19
Netherlands 29 13 2 14 113 93 +20
North Korea 6 6 0 0 51 14 +37
Norway 31 13 3 15 112 134 –22
New Zealand 2 2 0 0 66 2 +64
Poland 62 7 5 50 106 390 –284
Serbia 4 4 0 0 24 6 +18
Serbia and Montenegro 6 6 0 0 47 11 +36
Slovakia 7 1 1 5 7 53 –46
Slovenia 8 0 0 8 6 48 –42
South Africa 2 2 0 0 33 3 +30
South Korea 11 5 0 6 53 39 +14
Soviet Union 1 0 0 1 1 18 –17
Spain 10 10 0 0 86 12 +74
Sweden 5 0 1 4 4 35 –31
Switzerland 38 13 3 22 121 187 –66
Ukraine 20 3 0 17 20 116 –96
United States 11 1 0 10 21 85 –64
Yugoslavia 58 30 15 13 254 208 +46
Total 768 332 57 379 3 037 3 323 –286