Korean university hockey

[Marc Brunengraber]

I know South Korea has five or so university teams that play each other, and have played men's club teams and Korean Asia League teams in the past.

They have been competitive against the Asia League teams, so I know that they are pretty high level.

I randomly came across this clip on Youtube, which shows Korea University against Yonsei University.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=r...&v=S1s0WM1756A

Good stuff! And a VERY enthusiastic crowd!

I'd love to see them take on NCAA D.I or D.III teams, CIS teams, or Major Junior or USHL teams.

Not sure what their average ages are, or how many games per year they play, but they look very good.

[Steigs]

It's good hockey, but against NCAA D.I or Major junior, it would be lambs to the slaughter. CIS would also have a good run against them.

[Marc Brunengraber]

No argument from me.

But I think it would be great to see them play low-end NCAA D.I teams, low-end and middling NCAA D.III and CIS teams, and low-end Major Jr. and USHL teams as part of an international tour to help them develop. Seeing games against American and Canadian universities would be especially interesting as part of a cross-cultural exchange. Maybe have an NCAA or CIS team go over there and play all five of them.

[crossmr]

I actually just watched Yonsei and Korea universities play last night.
The domestic championship is going on right now.
There are 4 university teams that participate
Yonsei, Korea, Kyung Hee and Hanyang. The first two have full squads, the second two are slightly reduced, 15 and 14 players.

They're all university students, they'd run 19-23~24-25 if some of the guys took their military service early. Some guys do 2 years of school 2 years military, come back and do 2 more years of school.

I've never really watched any of the American leagues, like NCAA stuff. So the only thing I can compare it to is major junior, the moncton Wildcats.

These guys.. well it was an enjoyable game. There were some moments of brilliance. Yonsei's second was very good, as was their fourth goal I think. There are a couple of stand-out players. One of the guys on Yonsei is the brother of a Halla player, and you can tell he's probably been working with his brother a lot. he really shone.

The play was what you'd expect from lower levels. bobbled passes, pucks sliding off sticks, that kind of thing. They're not overly physical, but there were maybe 2-3 decent hits in the game where someone really got someone lined up, these guys get absolutely creamed by going up against High1 and Halla, but it wasn't always so. In 2004, a university team won the domestic championship, that was the last time. Since then it's been High1 and Halla, but even as recent as 2009 Korea university beat High1 (the final that year was Halla vs Korea)

Compared to watching a wild cats game. I think it'd be close. The Yonsei goalie is actually pretty good. j

I got to meet one of the guys from the Korea Ice hockey association when i was there last night, and he told me that the university teams go over and play japanese teams and they also go to Canada.

I'll get some information from him about games they've played.

Until now I hadn't gotten a lot of opportunity to watch the University teams, hard to get information and for the most part they play out of Mok-dong. Where I am in Seoul really sucks for getting to the rinks. The rinks are North South and West, and I'm in the East, it's like an hour to each one.

Here is my raw photo dump from last night:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...1&l=3ca6b66638

and my article on last night's game
http://eurohockey.com/article/2101-6...hip-day-2.html

[Marc Brunengraber]

Excellent, thanks for the info. & the pics!

Here's a taste of high end NCAA D.III (Oswego, currently #2 out of appx. 70 teams at that level) vs. USA U-18 from a month ago....

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=klXW1mhsBb0

And Norwich, currently #1 in NCAA D.III (vs. Middlebury, ranked just inside the top 20 at the moment)....

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xiMq6Png06I

Here's a taste of high end NCAA D.I hockey (Notre Dame vs. Boston College from last season); these teams would beat Asia League teams, handily in some cases. Good NCAA D.I teams have beaten Davos and Spartak Moscow at the Spengler Cup. They are technically amateur, but the players get scholarships for tuition, room and board worth anywhere from $20,000 through $50,000 per year. Note Chris Kreider scoring for BC; later that season, he stepped right from NCAA D.I to the Stanley Cup playoffs and starred for the NY Rangers.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tws9ZrjkcYQ

I hope you enjoy the links. These teams would all pound on the Korean universities, but I would love to see them play the bottom teams from these levels just to see how they would do. Same thing holds true for seeing them play bottom end Major Jr. and USHL teams.

[crossmr]

Yeah those team definitely seem to have more jump than the Korean university teams. Overall the teams are a lower level, but there are a couple of stand-out players that given the right opportunity might be able to make it in various leagues.

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