Japan edges eleven goal thriller over Asian rivals

In a game in which both defences left a lot to be desired, South Korea had the better of the play in the opening period. Early chances for Kyungwon Yoon and Brock Radunske tested Yutaka Fukufuji but the Nikko Ice Bucks netminder made the necessary saves. Japan would go on to open the scoring in the twelfth minute, as Takahito Suzuki scored on a rebound. The South Korean bench was incensed as they thought the Japanese had gone offside in the lead up to the goal, but the goal counted. Hyunseung Eum in the South Korean net was forced to make a number of good shots later in the period as the Japanese grew into the game, his best coming when he stacked the pads to deny Go Tanaka at the back door.

The floodgates opened as the red light was lit six times in the second period. Both teams were cutting ruts to the box in the opening minutes, and eventually South Korea would get the first goal of the period, as Kisung Kim hammered in a rebound at 28:02. Shuhei Kuji made good for the Japanese on the man advantage with a rocket of a shot from the left point at 29:57, but less than ninety seconds South Korea had drawn level again, Sanghoon Shin finding the net after great play by Yongjun Lee. Japan were in the driving seat after scoring two goals in thirty-five seconds in the latter stages of the third period. First Takuma Kawai netted on a rebound effort after Go Tanaka’s shot, before Kohei Mitamura went top shelf on Hyunseung Eum with a laser beam of a shot from the high slot.

South Korea were the comeback kings on Monday after reversing  a 4:1 deficit against Hungary, and they would soon draw level with Japan. First Brock Radunske scored with three and a half minutes to go in the second period, capitalising after getting the puck on his tape after Kisung Kim’s stick broke on a point shot, and then Sangwoo Sin netted four minutes into the third period. However, goals coming in bunches has been a trend in this tournament, as 41 seconds later, Makoto Kawashima fired home to make it 5:4 Japan. The Koreans were not done yet though, and it only took 45 seconds for the 2012 Division 1B Champions to equalise for the third time in the game, as Kim Wooyoung scored unassisted to level the game at five apiece. Hyunseung Eum was in spectacular form at time for South Korea, and he made another miraculous save with ten minutes gone in the period, sprawling across his crease to keep out a Kenta Takagi effort, but unfortunately for him he was unable to recover and Aaron Keller snapped up the loose puck and put it into the empty net. Japan started to assert control, and another scramble in the crease ended up in a Japanese penalty shot as kim Yoonhawn covered the puck with his hand. Kohei Mitamura had a chance to get his second of the game, but ended up firing wide on his penalty shot attempt. As the game neared its conclusion, South Korea piled on the pressure, but they would not complete a second comeback in as many games, as despite pulling Eum, they could not find a way past Yutaka Fukufuji, and Japan would hold on for their first victory in this year’s Division 1A World Championships.

The player of the game for team Japan was Aaron Keller, and speaking with eurohockey.com afterwards, he said, ‘Winning was big today. We had to win today to keep the bronze medal hopes alive’.

‘We wanted to play a better defensive game. We’re not that high scoring of a team so it wasn’t the type of game we wanted to play, but luckily we scored enough to win.

‘It feels good to get our first win of the tournament and hopefully we can build on it from here’.

For South Korea head coach Wook Sun Byun, it was penalties that were the key to the game. ‘We took too many penalties. We gave them too many scoring chances’.

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