Korea Domestic Championships Semi-finals

It was little surprise that the two Asia League teams won by huge margins on Wednesday. They have faced off against each other for several years in a row since both teams have been heavily improving their programs. The last time they did't face each other was a surprise upset in 2009 when Korea beat High1 in the semifinal. In 2007 the final was between High1 and Korea University as Halla had been eliminated. To this point, they have faced each other 5 times in the final with High1 winning 3 of those, including the most recent in 2011.

Yonsei vs High1 1-8

Yonsei at least tried to put up a fight against High1. Managing 20 shots to their 31. They didn't have much luck getting it past Inoue though scoring a lone goal early in the third on the 5 on 3, at that point making it 4-1. A bit unusual was a late second period penalty to Tae-an Kwon of High1. A 5 minute major for kneeing and a 20 minute game misconduct. While it is expected that the referees go a little easy on the university teams during these games and perhaps a little harder on the Asia League teams, this kind of penalty just shouldn't be showing up in these kinds of games. Kneeing can lead to serious injuries, and while it may happen from time to time in games with equally matched teams, in an imbalanced game like this, these kinds of things just shouldn't be happening at all.

Barney had a hat trick and Hyun-min Ahn and Hyun-jun kim each had a couple goals. Swift played in this game and got himself a goal and an assist. Sang-hun Shin scored the loan goal for Yonsei.

Kyung Hee vs Anyang Halla 1-9

The score could have been a lot worse. Halla didn't exactly start the game playing hard, but the goals came easily. Near the end of the first period they played a little softer, and at times almost seemed to be playing keep away rather than a serious game of hockey. Kyung Hee for their part played hard, but were mostly ineffective. An early bouncing puck in the second period actually gave them a break-away, which generated a missed shot on net, but the deflection off the back of the boards gave them a nice scoring chance. Halla out-shot Kyung Hee 35-6. Both teams changed their goalies mid-way through the game.

Randunske, Min-ho Cho, and Kuk-hwan Moon each had a couple goals. Han-mo Lee scored the lone goal for Kyung Hee with Dae-hun Kwon getting an assist. Kwon along with Jin-Hwe Ahn of Korea lead the university players with 3 goals and 1 assist during the opening rounds.

Halla and High1 will face off Friday at 1:30pm in Mok-dong Ice Rink.

After the semi-final Kwon led university players with 3 goals and 2 assists

 

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