TOKYO – Seven months after the championship series between Anyang Halla and the Tohoku Free Blades was pre-empted by the most powerful earthquake ever to strike Japan, the Asia League resumed play on Saturday evening, opening their ninth season of play with games between six of the seven participating teams.

At the Hakucho Arena (Tomakomai, Hokkaido), the Oji Eagles hosted the Nikko Ice Bucks in the first contest of the 2011-12 season. Despite being outshot 63-28, the Ice Bucks earned a 4-3 win five minutes into the overtime period on an unassisted shot by import Andrew Kozek, playing in his first game outside of North America.

Yutaka Fukufuji earned his first win of the season in net for the Ice Bucks, stopping 60 of 63 shots faced.

Last season’s ALIH co-champion, the Tohoku Free Blades held their home opener at the Niida Indoor Rink in Hachinohe City but were shut out by the visiting Nippon Paper Cranes. The Cranes’ Tyler Mosienko scored the lone goal of the contest 13:08 into the second period, assisted by defenseman Masahiro Ebina and Yutaro Imamura, who is beginning his fifth season with the club.  

Anyang Halla, who is seeking their third consecutive ALIH championship, hosted their fellow Korean rivals, High1, at the Anyang Sports Complex Arena in Anyang City. Halla led 3-0 after the first period on an early strike by Sang-Woo Sin and back-to-back scores by Brock Radunske less than two minutes apart.

High1 battled back in the middle frame, scoring three unanswered goals in less than seven minutes. Darcy Mitani, Michael Swift and Oren Eizenman provided the replies for High1. There was no scoring in a hard-fought third period and the second contest of the day was to be decided in overtime.

Byung-Chun Jung lit the lamp for Halla at the 2:00 mark of the extra period, assisted by Sang-Woo Sin to give the home team a 4-3 victory, ending a five-season jinx in which the team had lost each opening night game.

Anyang Halla forward Byung-Chun Jung scores the game-winner in Saturday's season opener.

The contest marked Radunske’s 100th regular season game with Halla and his two goals tied him for 2nd place (with Han-Sung Kim & Patrik Martinec) in the league’s all-time scoring race with 70 goals.

On Sunday, High1 hosted Halla at the Eui Am Ice Rink in Goyang, but home ice provided no sanctuary and the visiting team swept the weekend series with a 7-4 win.

Brock Radunske earned his third ALIH career hat-trick while former NHL defenseman Ric Jackman scored his first goal as a member of Halla just 47 seconds into the contest.

Back at Tomokomai, the Ice Bucks completed the sweep of the Eagles with a 3-2 win, led by another stellar performance in net by Yutaka Fukufuji, who stopped 37 of 39 shots faced. Once again, the home team outshot the visitor, this time 39-16, but never held the lead. Andrew Kozek scored twice in the second period, including the game-winner at the 31:51 mark. Veteran forward Dong-Hwan Song, nicknamed the “Korean Rocket”, notched three points in the contest, including a goal and two assists. Song played the previous eight seasons with Anyang Halla.

In the weekend’s final game, the Paper Cranes completed their sweep of the Free Blades, matching the previous days’ 1-0 score on a strike by team captain Daisuke Obara.

The Paper Cranes emerged from the opening weekend in first place with six points while Anyang Halla took the second position with five points, followed by the Ice Bucks (five points), Eagles (four points), High1 (two points) and the Free Blades (zero points).

Next weekend, Anyang Halla will travel to Beijing to meet the China Dragon for a three-game series which will conclude on the following Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Nippon Paper Cranes will host High1 for a two-game series at the Kushiro Ice Arena in Kushiro, Hokkaido and the Nikko Ice Bucks will host the Free Blades for a two-game series at the Nikko Kirifuri Ice Arena.

Contact the writer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com

Photo Credit: Anyang Halla