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Holland beats Serbia in OTThe Netherlands reached their goal by claiming the fourth place in this tournament...
Another bronze medal for JapanJapan secured the bronze medal on the final day of the World Championship Division I Group A...
Serbia's goalie surpriseTeam Serbia got unexpected goaltending help this week...
| gms | pts | w | l | otw | otl | ||
| 1 | Croatia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Great Britain | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Korea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Lithuania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Romania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No results available. |
| 31/03/12 | 13:30 | Croatia - Romania |
| 31/03/12 | 17:00 | Lithuania - Great Britain |
| 31/03/12 | 20:30 | Netherlands - Korea |
| 01/04/12 | 13:30 | Romania - Lithuania |
| 01/04/12 | 17:00 | Great Britain - Netherlands |
Japan
Japan joined the international ice hockey family in 1930 and played its first international match in January of that year in Davos Switzerland, losing 12-2 to Czechoslovakia. The Japanese made their Olympic Debut in 1936 and has in total been a participant in the Winter Olympics eight times, lastly in 1998 when Japan hosted the Games, finishing 13th. Since the early sixties Japan has been a regular participant in the World Championships, including seven years at the highest level from the late nineties as the participant on behalf of Asia. This protection vanished in 2004 and Team Japan has not been able to gain promotion from division I since.
Team Japan participated in the World Championship division I-tournament in Vilnius, Lithuania, finishing in third place with three wins in five games. Japan beat Australia, Croatia and Lithuania, but was beaten by Kazakhstan and Slovenia. Takeshi Saito had five goals and four assists to become the team’s top scorer. Tetsuya Saito and Daisuke Obara each tallied six points in the tournament. Masahito Haruna was the main goaltender in the squad.
Net minder Yutaka Fukufuji became the first Japanese player to appear in a National Hockey League game. Fukufuji was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2004 entry draft, signing a two-year entry-level contract with them. In January 2007 he first made an appearance in net as a substitute in the third period of a Kings game against St. Louis Blues, but three days later he made his first and so far only start in the NHL against the Atlanta Thrashers. After continuing his career in the minor leagues, he signed in the Dutch league this season with Tilburg Trappers.
Most players in Team Japan play for teams in the Asian Hockey League. Canadian-born Aaron Keller played in the Western Hockey League and professionally in the IHL and AHL. Takeshi Saito showed himself a good goal scorer during recent World Championships, while a host of players have experience at the top flight of international ice hockey.
Japan has become a mid ranking national at the Division I-level. This year they will be hoping to improve on their three bronze medals in a row since 2006.
| #29 | Yutaka Fukufuji | 185cm | 80kg | 17-09-'82 |
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| #1 | Masahito Haruna | 184cm | 78kg | 16-07-'73 |
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| #10 | Mitsuaki Inoue | 172cm | 63kg | 04-07-'86 |
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| #30 | Hisashi Ishikawa | 183cm | 70kg | 02-09-'81 |
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| #12 | Yosuke Haga | 174cm | 76kg | 05-09-'86 |
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| #5 | Ryo Hashiba | 180cm | 83kg | 06-05-'86 |
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| #6 | Makoto Kawashima | 178cm | 82kg | 02-05-'79 |
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| #4 | Aaron Keller | 182cm | 84kg | 01-03-'75 |
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| #27 | Ryota Minami | 180cm | 84kg | 23-10-'85 |
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| #23 | Hideyuki Osawa | 176cm | 80kg | 05-01-'79 |
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| #2 | Jun Tonosaki | 170cm | 70kg | 09-01-'84 |
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| #24 | Mei Ushu | 181cm | 75kg | 02-05-'91 |
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| #20 | Takafumi Yamashita | 177cm | 76kg | 11-11-'87 |
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| #21 | Shinya Yanadori | 179cm | 82kg | 15-12-'86 |
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| #7 | Masato Domeki | 175cm | 79kg | 29-12-'83 |
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| #17 | Yoshinori Iimura | 172cm | 73kg | 04-08-'81 |
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| #3 | Bin Ishioka | 178cm | 82kg | 17-01-'84 |
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| #15 | Takuma Kawai | 181cm | 92kg | 10-08-'88 |
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| #26 | Hidenao Kokubo | 172cm | 71kg | 28-11-'86 |
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| #8 | Yosuke Kon | 180cm | 80kg | 21-09-'78 |
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| #13 | Naoya Kubo | 174cm | 76kg | 04-08-'85 |
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| #11 | Masahito Nishiwaki | 178cm | 77kg | 06-10-'82 |
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| #16 | Tetsuya Saito | 176cm | 78kg | 14-12-'83 |
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| #19 | Takeshi Saito | 176cm | 75kg | 08-03-'81 |
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| #9 | Sho Sato | 176cm | 77kg | 07-09-'83 |
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| #25 | Shunsuke Shigeno | 194cm | 88kg | 14-03-'90 |
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| #18 | Takahito Suzuki | 173cm | 73kg | 17-08-'75 |
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| #14 | Go Tanaka | 174cm | 75kg | 06-10-'83 |
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| #28 | Hiroki Ueno | 179cm | 81kg | 08-04-'86 |
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| #22 | Takuro Yamashita | 181cm | 80kg | 22-05-'88 |
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| Mark Mahon | Head coach | 11-11-'65 |
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| Toru Matsuura | Media relations | 22-08-'47 |
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| Kazuhiko Mori | Team leader | 24-11-'42 |
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| Yutaka Saho | Physiotherapist | 31-03-'72 |
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| Hirokazu Sasaki | Assistant coach | 16-09-'62 |
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| Caba Sekesi | Equipment manager | 05-12-'64 |
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| Koji Suzuki | Doctor | 04-03-'59 |
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| Norio Suzuki | Assistant coach | 10-09-'64 |
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| Chris Wakabayashi | Interpreter | 10-11-'72 |
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| Takeshi Yamanaka | Assistant coach | 30-01-'71 |
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