It’s the 93rd All Japan Ice Hockey Championship. Twelve teams participate: four from Asia League Ice Hockey, four from the regional leagues, and four university teams. The ALIH teams are Red Eagles Hokkaido, Tohoku Free Blades, Yokohama Grits and Tochigi Nikko Ice Bucks. The regional league teams are Dynax, Nippon Steel Muroran, Tomakomai City Hall and Kushiro Koseisha. The university teams represent Chuo, Meiji, Toyo and Kwansei Gakuin. The ALIH teams get a bye through the first round.
Missing from the tournament is Stars Kobe, the newest ALIH club. They went professional in 2024 but date themselves back to 1994 as the Konan University club. They’re currently dead last in the ALIH. The sixth ALIH club, HL Anyang, is South Korean.
All games are at the Big Hat in Nagano.
The games:
December 18:
Match No. 1: Meiji University [5 – 4] Tomakomai City Hall
Match No. 2: Dynax [1 – 6] Toyo University
Match No. 3: Kushiro Koseisha [6 – 4] Chuo University
Match No. 4: Nippon Steel Muroran [7 – 3] Kwansei Gakuin University
December 19:
Match No. 5: [Meiji University] [1 – 11] Yokohama Grits
Match No. 6: Tochigi Nikko Ice Bucks [6 – 1] [Toyo University}
Match No. 7: [Kushiro Koseisha] [1 – 9] Red Eagles Hokkaido
Match No. 8: Tohoku Free Blades [7 – 3] [Nippon Steel Muroran]
December 20:
Match No. 9: [Tochigi Nikko Ice Bucks] [6 – 3] [Yokohama Grits]
Match No. 10: [Tohoku Free Blades] [1 – 2] [Red Eagles Hokkaido]
December 21:
Match No. 11: [Yokohama Grits] [1 – 2] [Tohoku Free Blades] (3rd-place game)
Match No. 12: [Tochigi Nikko Ice Bucks] [3 – 4] [Red Eagles Hokkaido]
[The 80th Korean Ice Hockey Championship was held December 20th to 23rd. These are the results as best as I can discover:
Kwangwoon University W – L KW Udire
Yonsei University W – L Kwangwoon University
HL Anyang 7 – 5 Korea University
HL Anyang 4 – 2 Yonsei University]
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