Asia League Ice Hockey

Asia League Ice Hockey

File:AsiaLeaguelogo.png
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	2003
No. of teams	7
Country	China Japan South Korea
Most recent champion(s)	Nippon Paper Cranes
Most titles	Nippon Paper Cranes (3)
Official website	alhockey.com

The Asia League Ice Hockey is a professional ice hockey league based in East Asia, with teams from Japan, China, South Korea, and formerly the Russian Far East. The league was formed from an expansion of the Japan Ice Hockey League to other countries in 2003.

Several National Hockey League players have played in the league, including Yutaka Fukufuji, Greg Parks, Esa Tikkanen, Chris Lindberg, Tavis Hansen, Shjon Podein, Jason Podollan, Derek Plante, Steve McKenna, Jarrod Skalde, Joel Prpic, Tyson Nash, Chris Allen, Jamie McLennan, Shane Endicott, Wade Flaherty, Brad Tiley, Ricard Persson, Brad Fast, and Claude Lemieux.

Teams

2008–09

In its 2008-09 season, the Asia League Hockey has 7 teams, including 4 teams from the Japan; 2 teams from South Korea; as well as China Sharks from China.

Season structure

The opening round began on September 20, 2008. The regular season is scheduled to come to a close on January 25, 2009. Playoffs will begin on February 17, 2009, and will end on March 23 at the latest.

During the regular season, each team will play thirty-six games: six games against each of the teams in the league other teams, with the top five teams advancing to the playoffs.

The first playoff round will be played between the fourth and the fifth seeded, in a best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to semifinals where they face the regular season winners in a best-of-seven series. The other semifinal will be played between the second and third placed teams of the regular season. The Final will be played between the winners of the semifinals, also in a best-of-seven series.

History

The begining

Because of the limited preparation time, the first edition of the Asia League, Season 2003-04, was played in only 2 months, since mid-November 2003 to mid-January 2004; and because of this there were no playoff series. Five teams took part of this first edition, with Halla Winia as the only team from outside Japan.

The tournament was played in a league format where every team played each other four times (two home and two away games). The points system used since this season to the season 2007-2008 (regular season only), was: the winner in regular time won 3 points; in case of a tie, a five minutes overtime is played, the winner in overtime won 2 points and the loser in overtime won 1 point, if there was no winner each team won one point.

The champion was Nippon Paper Cranes with 39 points, and second was Kokudo two points behind. The Canadian Joel Prpic (Kokudo) was the scoring leader of the tournament with 33 points.

The expansion

In 2004 the league expanded for the first time rising from five teams to eight. The three expansion teams were based in Khabarovsk, Russia (Golden Amur), Harbin, (China), and Qiqihar, (China).

The tournament 2004-05 was played in a league format where every team played each other six times (three home and three away games), making up to fourtytwo games for each team played since September 2004 to March 2005. The top four teams advance advanced to the playoffs, in a best of five format, where the first of the regular season played against the fourth, and the second against the third.

The champion was Kokudo who won 3 games to 1, against the Cranes in the finals. The Canadian Darcy Mitani (Cranes) was the scoring leader of the tournament with 69 points.

In 2005 the league were expanded again, from eight teams to nine. The two expansion teams were based in Beijing, China (Nordic Vikings), and Chuncheon, South Korea (Kangwon Land). Due to financial reasons it was announced the end of its Russian team: Golden Amur.

In this season each team played 38 games since September 2005 to February 2006. The top six teams advanced to the playoffs, in a best of five format, where the top two teams advance directly to the second round of playoffs (semifinals).

The champion was Kokudo who won 3 games to 2, against the Cranes in the finals. The American Derek Plante (Cranes) was the scoring leader of the tournament with 75 points.

The current times

The new season began in September 2006, with eight teams, (Nordic Vikings withdraw the league due to lack of sponsors). Each team played 34 regular season games with the same last year's play-off format.

The champions were the Cranes who won 3 games to 1 against the last champion, who changed its name to Seibu Prince Rabbits. The Czech Patrik Martinec (Anyang) was the scoring leader of the tournament with 71 points.

The season 2007-08 was played by seven teams, the two chinese teams (Changchun Fuao and Hosa) merged into one new team, (the China Sharks), specially because of the lack of good results during the lasts seasons.

The regular season began in September 2007; each team played 30 regular season games with the same last years' play-off format. Oji Eagles only needs three games against the Cranes, to won its first Asian League championship. The American Alex Kim (High1) was the scoring leader of the tournament with 51 points.

Economic Crisis

The Seibu Prince Rabbits ice hockey team, owned by the Seibu group unit, announced in December its withdrawal from the sport at the end of the 2008-2009 Asia League season amid the world economic crisis. Seibu’s disbandment leaves no Tokyo-based team in the Asia League.

Season 2008-09

Nippon Paper Cranes is the current champion of the Asia League after winning the final against the Rabbits 4 to 3. The regular season winner was Anyang Halla, the first non-Japanese team to make it.

The season's scoring leader and MVP was the Canadian Brock Radunske (Anyang) with 57 points.

Asia League Champions

Season	Winner
2003-04	Nippon Paper Cranes
2004-05	Kokudo
2005-06	Kokudo
2006-07	Nippon Paper Cranes
2007-08	Oji Eagles
2008-09	Nippon Paper Cranes

Stats

Complete rankings, with the games and players of the all seasons can be found here.

References

• Meltzer, Bill "Asia Hockey League: Pioneering Hockey's Great Frontier" at NHL.com. Retrieved 06-15-2006.
• Asia League Ice Hockey archives
• "San Jose strengthens ties to China Sharks" nhl.com, Aug 20, 2008
• "New-look Anyang Halla adds western flavor" nhl.com, July 31, 2008
• "Former NHLers find hockey adventure in Japan" nhl.com, March 26, 2008
• "Esa Tikkanen's indecipherable hockey journey continues in South Korea", The Asian Pacific Post, December 9, 2004.
• "Asia League: Korean clubs aim to break Japanese dominance" NHL article, Dec 19, 2007.

External links

• Asia League Ice Hockey - Official site
• Japan Ice Hockey Federation
• Chinese Ice Hockey association
• Korea Ice Hockey association
• Official homepage for Anyang Halla, English/Korean