Oji wins 2008 AL Finals!
Posted by japanstats on 2008 March 20日 Thursday
Congratulations to Oji Paper Ice Hockey Team, the 2008 Asia League Ice Hockey champions!
3rd place finisher in the regular season, Oji convincingly won the championship, going undefeated in the playoffs reeling off 9 straight victories. Oji let in 2 or less goals in every game but 1 (the 10-5 shootout semifinal win over High1). Goalie Haruna was outstanding throughout the playoffs, and it was no different in the deciding game as he stopped 33 of 35 Cranes shots in the 3-2 win. With a 1.89 GAA, only allowing 17 goals on 221 SOG for a very solid 92.3% save percentage, he probably deserves the finals and playoff MVPs. He outplayed McLennan in the finals, Jamie had been having an excellent playoffs up until that point with a 92% save percentage going into the finals and he had singlehandedly won games for the Cranes, but in the end Haruna was the man.
This was the first AL championship for Oji (every final before this year featured the Cranes v. Seibu/Kokudo), and the last time Oji won the league was the Japan Ice Hockey League way back in 1994. Congrats Oji!
Japan, Hockey, Baseball, etc. 
Inter•Ice Hockey Report said
Since their first victory in the 3rd All Japan Championship in 1932, they have captured 34 times All Japan and 13 times Japan League titles, and become the leading team in Japanese Ice Hockey in terms of both their history and overall record. Their last victory was in All Japan Championship three seasons ago.