Free Blades roster set!

The new entry into the Asia League for the upcoming 2009-10 season, the Tohoku Free Blades, have finally signed enough players to form a complete roster. The new players should significantly improve the team and hopefully not make them a yearlong doormat in their expansion season (since the China Sharks don’t have Wade Flaherty anymore, there’s hope).

New players:

F Akiyumi Okuyama 31GP 1G+1A=2P (Oji)

F Masahito Suzuki 34GP 4+11=15 (Oji)

F Bin Ishioka 36GP 8+10=18 (Seibu) – Bin’s move to China turned out to be just an unconfirmed rumour

D Kazumoto Imajo (Chuo University captain – was supposed to join the now defunct Seibu Prince Rabbits)

D Steve Munn (AHL/ECHL)

D Brad Farynuk (AHL/ECHL)

LW Bruce Mulherin (EIHL/ECHL)

LW Jon Smyth (Bundesliga 2nd Division)

All 4 imports are Canadian.

JIHF Press Release: Toyo University wins 80th Intercollegiate Games

The ice hockey finals for the 80th Intercollegiate Ice Sports Games was held on 9 January at the Hakucho Arena in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, and Toyo University shut out Meiji University 4-0 behind Haga’s natural hat trick to repeat as champions.

Toyo University 4 (2-0, 1-0, 1-0) 0 Meiji University

• Scoring Summary

05:22 Haga, Assists: Amano, Omachi
10:57 Haga, Assists: Tsuchizuka, Sasaki
37:42 Haga, Assists: Kokubo, Sakagami
44:42 Kokubo, Assists: Sakagami, Haga

Tournament MVP: Reo Amano (Toyo Univ.)
Scoring leaders: Hidenao Kokubo (Toyo Univ.), Yuto Ebata (Meiji Univ.), Naoya Kubo (Waseda Univ.)
Assist leader: Tomonori Sakagami (Toyo Univ.)
Tournament All-Stars:
F Hidenao Kokubo (Toyo), Tomonori Sakgami (Toyo), Takeya Kono (Meiji)
D Yosuke Haga (Toyo), Masahiro Ebina (Toyo)
G Yuta Narusawa (Toyo)

[Bronze Medal Game]
Waseda University 2 (0-1, 2-1, 0-1) 3 Chuo University

• Scoring Summary

13:32 Chuo: Asano, Assists: Abe, Seta
22:45 Waseda: Kubo, Assists: Iwase
24:11 Waseda: Kubo, Assists: Nakajima, Kuji
35:05 Chuo: Tani, Assists: Takahashi, Imajo
51:29 Chuo: Abe, Assists: Seta, Watanabe

Original JIHF press release