Seibu Prince Rabbits completed their tough training camp in Bavaria is over. Here are the results, the team played its best game against the DEL side Ingolstadt in a SO loss, and finally won a game against 3rd division Kaufbeauren in its last game on the 11 day 6 game trip. The first few days the team had to also fight off jet lag, which I think contributed to the poor showing overall, as the team only arrived in Germany on the 20th, the day before the first game.
8.21 SEIBU 0 – 3 EHC Munchen
8.22 SEIBU 4 (0-6, 3-1, 0-3) 9 EV Fussen
8.24 SEIBU 2 (2-1, 0-1, 0-0, SO 0-1) 3 ERC Ingolstadt (DEL)
8.26 SEIBU 0 (0-3, 0-0, 0-1) EV Ravensburg
8.29 SEIBU 2 (1-1, 1-2, 0-1) 4 Ausburger Panther (DEL)
0:1 (08:10) Gordon (Barney, Buzas)
1:1 (18:24) Kamino (Kawai, Kawamura)
1:2 (21:02) Gordon (Olimb, Hunt)
1:3 (37:56) Engelhardt (Barney)
2:3 (39:01) Fujita (Rochefort, Prpic)
2:4 (49:18) Chartier (Junk)
Attendance: 1,172
8.31 SEIBU 4 (2-0, 0-1, 2-2) 3 ESV Kaufbeuren
1:0 (13:22) Kawamura (Fujita, Kashino)
2:0 (15:29) Miura (Tanaka, Okubo) SH
2:1 (37:35) Saurette (McFeeters, Ekblad) PP
3:1 (42:57) Okubo
3:2 (48:06) Webb (Saurette, McFeeters)
4:2 (51:31) Fujita (Ishioka, Uchiyama)
4:3 (54:22) Hess
Attendance: 1,274
Fujita and Okubo (back in Japan after 2 seasons in Korea) are involved in a lot of scoring playing and they seem to be on form already. And Obara was trying out for Augsburg but didn’t make the cut and will be a hare again this season. Even if he did make the team though, it would’ve most likely have been just a 1 season rental type transfer, which doesn’t help that much in terms of raising the level of Japanese hockey as a whole. To do this players have to fully commit themselves to playing overseas, but playing hockey in Japan is financially secure compared to European leagues or North American minor leagues, so Japanese hockey national team isn’t getting better like its soccer counterpart. The equipment manager has some interesting photos from the the trip on his blog, outdoor rink with a roof, that’s very European (though German leagues are changing the rules next season so that these rinks will have walls), never seen one here in Japan or Canada.
Next up in the Asia League preseason is the Anyang Cup. This season it will be contested between the hosts Anyang Halla, High1, Nippon Paper Cranes, Oji Eagles, and the China Sharks.
