Posted by japanstats on 2009 September 12日 Saturday
The Tohoku Free Blades hosted their first preseason game today in Hachinohe, Aomori against the Nikko Ice Bucks. And despite local reports that it was a rough game with lots of penalties against the Blades, the expansion team managed to pull off a wild 9-6 win over the stronger than usual Bucks squad. The shots on goal were Blades 35 – 36 Bucks, so it looks like the Blades have improved a lot compared to their first pair of preseason games in Nikko where they were clearly being outplayed. Apparently there was a decently sized crowd as well (there better be, as it was a weekend game, and the first one against an AL team at that.)
Edit: Official game sheet. There were 420 spectators, this’ll have to improve during the regular season.
The new AL team Tohoku Free Blades faced off against the bolstered Nikko Ice Bucks over the weekend for two preseason games. These two games were the Blades first official games (their games up to now had been against understrengthed squads, non-AL teams or not full 3×20 games).
The word is that Steve Munn and Jon Smyth were solid for the Blades, Bin Ishioka scored both goals in game 1, Michio Hashimoto kept the team in the game despite being vastly outshot in the first game, and the team was less tense in the second game and played a more overall solid game despite the untelling scoreline.
Goalies in game 1 were starters and former Buck Michio Hashimoto for the Blades and national team goalie Naoya Kikuchi for the Bucks, backup goalies played in game 2 for both teams.
On another note, national team defenceman and former Seibu Prince Rabbit Ryuichi Kawai and his younger brother and first Japanese player to appear in the Memorial Cup Takuma Kawai are in a small town near Lethbridge, Alberta at staying at Kiyoshi Ryan Fujita’s house and training. Not sure what they’re aim is but maybe they’re looking for some tryouts in the North American minor leagues.
Defending Asia League champions Nippon Paper Cranes will face off against the Oji Eagles for two preseason games at the beginning of September. Free admission for both games.
3 Sept (Thu) 18:30 faceoff
4 Sept (Fri) 10:30 faceoff
Both games are held at the Oji Skate Center and which is located a mere 4 minute walk from JR Tomakomai station on Oji Street.
The 2009 Kanto University Ice Hockey Championships (aka 58th Chichibunomiya Cup) concluded on 29 April with the bronze medal game and the finals held at Dydo Drinco Ice Arena in Higashifushimi, Tokyo.
The Rabbits no more at Higashifushimi. But the White Bears junior teams are prominent, and that’s kind of fitting since the Seibu Railway team that occupied Higashifushimi before their merger with Kokudo was the White Bears.
The first game was the third place match between Hosei University and Meiji University.
Meiji looking funky in their throwback-ish uniform. The game was no contest though, as Hosei took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, then never looked back on their way to a comfortable 5-2 victory.
And the feature game of the day was the finals between Waseda University and Toyo University, powerhouse Japanese university teams.
Waseda players start to warm up on the ice while Meiji and Hosei players were still on their way off. There was no Zamboni between the previous game and the next game’s practice, as the schedule was pretty tightly packed. The Zamboni came on after the pre-game practice though.
Waseda’s #21 Shuhei Kuji who was heads and shoulders above the other players on the ice, as he singlehandedly scored Waseda’s first goal by dancing through the Toyo defence from the blue line before cleanly beating the goalie to score unassisted. Kuji has already played and has scored for the senior national team, and it shows, he’s got quick hands and feet. Hopefully his growth as a player won’t be stunted in the near future.
Waseda looks like Harvard (no surprise as a self-professed Japanese Ivy) and Toyo’s looking NY Rangers. The standing room only crowd was much larger than at most Asia League games.
Kuji also scored Waseda’s only other goal in the game, but as teams Toyo was far superior and the game ended 6-2 for Toyo with an empty netter.
Congratulations Toyo University, the 2009 Kanto champions!
Goaltender Eri Kiribuchi, born in Japan, learned hockey in the Czech Republic, and now attending Bemidji State University in Minnesota, USA, playing for the Japanese national team for the first time in her career against USA at the 2009 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Finland. She gave up 4 goals against the world champions in half the game in Japan’s 0-8 loss in pool play, she looks to be a key piece for the future of the Japanese national team as she is the only person playing outside of the country and in the de facto women’s elite league that is NCAA Division I.
Finally, a new happoshu (the second rate beer imitation) that’s drinkable has returned to the market. After the demise of the original Santory Magnum Dry, I’ve been looking for drinkable happoshu as their price points are about 100 yen cheaper than real beer which usually start at around 220 yen. Suntory The Straight seems to be repackaged Magnum Dry, as it’s crisp and goes down easy. A poor man’s Asahi Super Dry, as you can say in both cases. It’s just that Magnum Dry had disappeared off the shelves in recent months (a year?) so I had been looking for a decent substitute and other happoshu just weren’t doing the job (let alone the sub-happoshu that’s classified as 3rd class “beer” made of soy beans, ugh, nothing half decent in this category, just move along). So, if you’re looking for Asahi Super Dry on the cheap for spring-summer drinking season, I recomment Suntory’s The Straight. Maybe an upcoming post about the hangover effects of this drink, as happoshu tend to give you worse hangovers than beer.
Japan, Hockey, Baseball, etc. 