Tohoku Free Blades フリーブレイズ Asia League Ice Hockey Champions 2015

Team Roster 
Kazutomo Imajo, Yuya Yamada, Shuji Kikuchi, Tianyu Hu, Brad Farynuk, Hikaru Satoh, Goshi Kumagai, Yuhei Shinohara, Kyohei Kikuchi, Logan Stephenson, Michitaka Motono, Katsumasa Kondo, Shogo Iwatsuki, Go Tanaka, Ryo Omiya, Naoto Mizuuchi, Kazuki Yamamoto, Kim Staal, Takuro Yamashita, Ryo Tanaka, Shohei Ikeda, Junya Yamada, Kota Shinohara, Takuma Kawai, Yuto Itoh, Michio Hashimoto

Head Coach - JP MacCallum 
Assistant Coach - Tomohito Ohkubo 
Manager - Yuhei Hikasa 
President - Takaaki Nakamura 
Owner - Hiroko Morohashi

ANYANG, Korea – The Tohoku Free Blades from Japan have won their third Asia League title after sweeping Korean club Anyang Halla 3-0 in the best-of-five final series. 

The Free Blades, who finished the regular season in third place, previously eliminated second-seeded Morskie Lvy Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk from the Russian island of Sakhalin 3-1 in the semi-finals. Regular-season winner Anyang Halla beat High1 Chuncheon in three games in an all-Korean semi-final to set up the showdown with Tohoku. 

It’s not the first time the two teams reached the final series. In 2011 a disastrous earthquake and tsunami hit the Tohoku region just as the Free Blades had finished practice at their rink. The Anyang Halla team had just landed in Japan and was on the bus ride for the first game. The series had to be cancelled and both teams were declared co-champions.

Anyang Halla had won the first title by a Korean team the year before and the Tohoku Free Blades became undisputed Asia League champion two years later in 2013. Despite not even playing one home game in this year’s final, the Free Blades nevertheless managed the sweep by outscoring Anyang 16-8 (6-3, 4-3, 6-2). 

The best-of-five series started with three games within four days in the Korean city of Anyang, but after the Free Blades’ three wins, the two games in the upcoming weekend on Tohoku’s home ice in Koriyama don’t have to be played anymore. Instead fans welcomed the players back on Thursday in Hachinohe, one of the other venues used by the team, where the players will celebrate with the fans on 1st April. 

“I didn’t think about three straight wins against Anyang Halla but we had great games. We played hard, competed in every battle and used our speed. We appreciate all of Freeblades fans who supported us,” team captain Go Tanaka said. 

In the opening game of the final, Go Tanaka scored early in the first and the second period. Anyang Halla tied it up with goals from Mike Testwuide and Brock Radunske when Tohoku ran into penalty trouble and Ki Sung Kim scored the third power-play goal in less than four minutes to give Anyang the lead. But the Tohoku Free Blades reacted with a pair of goals from Ryo Tanaka, another one from Takuro Yamashita and a shot into the empty net from Danish national team forward Kim Staal to open the series with a 6-3 win. 

The day after Anyang Halla tried to bounce back and fought hard in its closest game of the series. Testwuide gave his team the lead twice but Logan Stephenson and Go Tanaka replied to tie the game at two midway through the third period. With 1:54 left in regulation time Staal gave Tohoku the lead for the first time but 35 seconds later Korean forward Woo Sang Park tied the game. At 11:45 of the overtime period it was Tanaka who scored his second goal of the day to earn Tohoku the second win. 

The third game on Tuesday was the last chance for the Korean home team to change its fortunes but it was the Tohoku players who succeeded offensively while their goalkeeper Yuto Itoh kept his net clean during the first 58 minutes of play. The 23-year-old Itoh joined the goalie trio as the rookie after graduating at Meiji University but until the start of the post-season he became the number-one choice over more experienced Michio Hashimoto and Michikazu Hata. 

Until late in the game the Free Blades scored six unanswered goals including two from Tanaka, who was deservedly named MVP of the Asia League playoffs, to claim the trophy with the 6-2 win in Game 3. 

The 31-year-old Tanaka, who has represented Japan in seven IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I tournaments, was the scoring leader and the top goal scorer of the playoffs with ten goals and four assists followed by teammates Ryo Tanaka (Go’s brother) and Kim Staal, who each had 13 points. 

Apart from Danish veteran Staal and the defensive work and physical presence of Canadians Brad Farynuk and Logan Stephenson, the team was built on a foundation of some of Japan’s top forwards. Apart from the two Tanaka brothers – the third brother Sho played for league rival China Dragon while their father Seijiro was a player in the top Japanese league in the ‘80s – also Takuma Kawai, Naoto Mizuuchi and Takuro Yamashita played for the Japanese national team in the last two years. 

Also behind the bench the club had consistency. Coach Chris Wakabayashi was part of all three championships and won two other Asia League titles earlier as an assistant coach with Kokudo. Canadian J.P. MacCallum, who previously coached in Hungary, has been with Tohoku for three seasons. Tomohito Okubo, who retired as a defenceman last season, brought yet more experience to the coaching staff. 

The Asia League included nine teams this season – four from Japan, three from Korea, one from China and as the newest entry Morskie Lvy Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk from Sakhalin, the Russian island north of Japan. 

Of the four Japanese teams the Tohoku Free Blades are the youngest club having joined the league in 2009 to bring hockey to several venues in the north-east of Japan’s largest island Honshu.

Original Article by Martin Merk at http://www.iihf.com/