SEOUL - Ice hockey is a sport that seems well suited to Korean culture. It’s a game that demands discipline, a strong work ethic and willingness to sacrifice individual goals to advance those of the team. While South Korea has just 1,461 registered players (155 adult males, 104 females and 1,306 youth hockey participants), it is a country where there is potential to grow the game.

Over the last year, South Korean hockey has taken several notable strides in its continued development. The Koreans won their first promotion to the Division I World Championship. Their Under-20 national team turned in a solid performance at the Division II Under-20s. And, for the first time, a Korean team currently sits in first place in Asia League Ice Hockey (ALIH).

2008 World Championship Division I awaits Koreans

Last April, Seoul’s Mok-Dong Arena was the host venue for the 2007 World Championship Division II Group B. The event was a success, despite the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) withdrew its team from participation. In a pool that included Australia, Israel, Mexico and Iceland, the tournament hosts went undefeated to earn its promotion to the Division I level.

As expected, the games against Australia and Israel were the toughest challenges, but the Koreans downed the Aussies by a 5-4 score and rode a strong first period to a 5-2 win over the Israelis. South Korea easily handled Mexico by a 6-1 count and routed overmatched Iceland, 17-2. Just as important, Team Korea drew respectable crowds for all its games, with a top attendance of 2,115 fans for the match against Israel.

When it was all over, Korea players dominated the post-tournament awards handed out by the IIHF Directorate. Defenceman Sung Min Park (who suits up for Korean club team Anyang Halla during the Asia League season) won tournament Most Valuable Player and Best Defenceman for producing eight points and a plus-seven defensive rating in four games. Han-Sung Kim (also of Anyang Halla) won Best Forward honours after scoring four goals. He beat out equally deserving teammates Eun-Jun Kim (High1 Chuncheon), who tallied six goals and eight points, Kyu-Hun Kim (five goals, 11 points, plus-nine) and Ki-Sung Kim (five goals, 10 points, plus-seven).

The Koreans may have a tough time surviving the 2008 World Championship Division I in Innsbruck. They will go up against a field of experienced Division I level opponents, and are likely not yet be ready to compete with the likes of the host Austrians, Kazakhstan or Poland. Likewise, Great Britain and the Netherlands should be able to handle the Koreans and ensure their relegation to Division II.

But no matter what happens in April, it will be an invaluable learning experience for the Koreans, who are a team that never gives less than one hundred percent effort regardless of the score.

Progress at the junior level

Recently, Korea’s Under-20 team made a strong showing at the 2008 World U20 Championships Division II Group A in Canazei, Italy. Although the host Italians won the tournament and a promotion to the 2009 U20 Worlds Division I, the Korean team proved to be a formidable opponent. In their head-to-head meeting, Italy narrowly escaped with a 4-3 win over the Koreans, withstanding a courageous comeback attempt in the final minutes of the match after the Italians had led 4-1.

In their other games, Korea took care of business against Belgium (3-0), Romania (3-2) and Iceland (8-0). The only real disappointment for the Koreans was a 5-1 loss to archrival Japan.

Most of Korea’s young hockey talent comes out of Yonsei University and Korea University, with a smaller number of players arising from Han Yang and Kyunghee Universities. Typically, many of these players were previous standouts at either Kyungbok or Kyungsong High School.

Among the Korean standouts at the 2008 U20’s Division II, three were Yonsei products. 19-year-old forward Sang-Wook Kim, chosen by Team Korea coach Sung-Yub Yoon as the best player on the team during the tournament, led the team in scoring with an extremely impressive seven goals and 13 points in five games. Playmaking forward Dong-Yeon Kim led the way with eight assists, while goaltender Sung-Je Park was strong in the net (1.88 goals against, 91.4 save percentage and one shutout).

Meanwhile, Korea University affiliated players Ho-Taek Han, a forward, tallied four goals and three assists in the tournament, and defenceman Woo-Young Kim was Team Korea’s top producing defenceman.

In the last few years, the Korean hockey system has exported several young players to European minor leagues. The players have performed surprisingly well.

Left winger Kwon Tae-An has been playing this season in Sweden for minor league team Borlange HC. The 22-year-old has held his own at the Division I level (two steps down from the Swedish Elitserien). He’s the only non-Swede on the roster.

In 25 games played to date over the fall and spring phases of the season, Kwon is tied for second on the team with 11 goals, and is fifth on the club with 20 points. He has played on the top line with centre Anders Lovdal and right winger Daniel Eklund (the son of longtime Philadelphia Flyers, AIK Stockholm and Leksands IF standout Per-Erik Eklund).

Prior to joining Borlange, Kwon was a standout at Yonsei University in his homeland and dominated the 2003 World U18 Championship Division II with nine goals and 17 points in five games. He also played Junior B hockey in Canada for the Richmond Sockeyes of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League.

Last season, there was also a Korean player at Finland’s second-tier Mestis league. Defenceman Kim Woo-Jae played 45 games for Jokipojat Joensuu. The 28-year-old is now back in the Asia League with Anyang Halla. He is a mainstay on the South Korea national team and, like Kwon, is a Yonsei University product.

The Koreans have also made strides at the Under-18 international level. Last spring in Romania, the Korean Under-18 team was 20 minutes away from earning a promotion to the 2008 U18’s Division I. In its final game, Korea took on Lithuania in a battle of undefeated teams. Korea led the game 2-1 after the second period, but the Lithuanians stormed back for three unanswered goals in the final period to win both the game and the tournament.

High1 tops in Asia League, Czechs aid Anyang Halla

Now in its fifth season of existence, the Asia League of Ice Hockey currently consists of four Japanese clubs, two from South Korea and one from China. Until now, the league has consistently been dominated by the Japanese teams.  That’s not a surprise because Japanese hockey has historically been more successful, both domestically and internationally, than its South Korean and Chinese counterparts.

In each of the four prior Asia League seasons, the Nippon Paper Cranes of Kushiro were the top club during the regular season. In the playoffs, either the Cranes or the Seibu Prince Rabbits (formerly known as Kukudo Hockey and the Kukudo Bunnies) have won the league championship.

After 25 games played this season, however, Korean club High1 of Chuncheon City holds down first place in the seven-team circuit, with a three point lead on Seibu (which has played two additional games), an 11-point cushion over Oji Paper and a 13-point advantage over the Cranes. Meanwhile, Anyang Halla sits in fifth place, four points behind the Cranes.

The Chungcheon City club was founded three years ago. The team is owned by real estate venture company Kangwon Land, which also owns hotels, casinos, ski resorts, golf and country clubs. The team was renamed High1 this season after being known as Kangwon Land Hockey in its previous campaigns. Last year, the team finished fourth and reached the semi-finals in the playoffs.

This season, High1 has been led by a core of imported players. The standouts have been Tim Smith, Korean-American forward Alex Kim, Bud Smith, Korean-Canadian forward Chi-Young Benedict Song, and veteran Japanese defenceman Tomohito Okubo. The team also has former NHL player Steve McKenna on hand.

Several of the native-born Korean players on head coach Hee-Woo Kim’s team have also performed well. In particular twenty-two-year-old starting goaltender Hyun-Seung Eum has posted a stellar 2.32 goals against average and 92.4 save percentage, while national team star Eun-Joon Kim and Byoung-Wook Hwang rank among the top 30 in the Asia League’s import-heavy top goal-scorer list.

The other ALIH entry from Korea, Anyang Halla, club pre-dates the creation of the Asia League by nearly a decade. Anyang Halla was the top team in the former Korean League, and has finished as high as second in the Asia League standings. The team made overseas headlines during the 2004-05 season when longtime NHL and Team Finland forward Esa Tikkanen appeared in 30 games.

Most of the foreign interest in developing the Asia League has been directed toward investing in Chinese hockey to prop up its troubled hockey program in the short term while hopefully laying the groundwork for a long-term infrastructure that will enable the game to thrive. But there have also been efforts in Korea, spurred primarily through the participation of Czech coaches and players with the Anyang Halla team.

For several seasons, Anyang Halla has been coached by Otakar Vejvoda. A legend of Czech hockey as both a standout defenceman for Kladno and a successful coach, Vejvoda is now in his third season behind the Anyang Halla bench. Not surprisingly, many of the import players Anyang Halla has brought in during Vejvoda’s tenure have been fellow Czechs.

Most notably, veteran centre Patrik Martinec has been with the team for three seasons after a long and successful career in the Czech Extraliga, where he once led the league in scoring. Veteran defenceman Patrik Hucko is in his first season in Korea after playing for many years in his home league, as well as in Germany, Russia and Sweden. Another former Czech Extraliga player, Filip Stefanka, is a regular starter.

For the first month of the current season, former Philadelphia Flyers left wing prospect Milan Kopecky played with Anyang Halla. He was replaced in mid-November by fellow Czech forward Tomas Hruby, who played last year in the Asia League for the Hosa team in China.

Among Anyang Halla’s Korean players, the top goal producer has been forwards Yu-Won Lee. Lee leads all Anyang Halla players with 10 goals in 24 matches. Hong-Il Kim is the club’s top playmaker with 15 assists. Han-Sung Kim’s 21 points are good for third on the team, after Martinec and Hucko.  

Anyang defenceman Woo-Jae Kim returned from Finland and emerged as a key player on the blueline. Goaltender Ho-Seung Son has posted a respectable 2.76 goals against average with a save percentage just a shade below 90 percent.

BILL MELTZER