The last game of the Division I/A World Championships in Budapest Hungary will be the host team Hungary taking on the rivals from the Orient, Japan. If every thing goes right then the Hungarians will be playing for the second promotion spot as Japan will be trying to get bronze. There are two aspects to consider, Hungary beat Japan 7-0 in a friendly in Budapest almost 2 weeks ago, and the other is that the Japanese play in a similar style as to the Koreans who Hungary lost to 5-4 in a shoot out. “The Japanese play in the same style as the Koreans, they are very good skaters” says Gergely Majoross, former national team player and Hungarian video coordinator. Brent Pope, the managing director for the Cardiff Devils and color commentator for Premier Sports say “the Japanese are great skaters and always come to win”.
Goalie- The goalie tandem like most teams in Budapest this week have both an experienced veteran and a young up and coming backup, this is the same case with the Japanese as well. The starter for Japan is the 30 year old Yutaka Fukufuji who was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in 2004 and played four games for them along with spending time in the AHL and ECHL. He has spent the past three seasons in the Asia League along with the 23 year old backup Michikazu Hata.
Defensemen- The blue line has a nice balance of youth and experience spanning from the 38 year old Aaron Keller and the 20 year old Ryo Hashimoto. All but two of the defensemen have any experience outside of the Asia League, Keller who was born in Canada played junior hockey in the WHL and a season split between ECHL, IHL and the AHL. The other player with North American experience is Kazumasa Sasaki who spent one season of juniors in the AEHL.
Forwards- The forward unit seems to be a split between a small group of veterans with a core of young up and coming forwards. There is a handful that have experience playing outside of the Asia League, Takuma Kawai played juniors in the elite QMJHL, Takahito Suzuki spent a season in the ECHL. Joining these two is Yuto Osawa, and Hiroshi Sato who have both spent a season in the Swedish Allsvenska. On the domestic side of things Shuhei Kuji had 57 point in 42 Asia league matches and Go Tanaka had 62.
Adding on to all of this is an expert opinion on their offense, “they are a quick, disciplined very methodical team who will be trying to get revenge after the 7-0 loss” said Hungarian goalkeeper coach Gary Clark.
Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky