Asia League Ice Hockey (; ) or ALIH (AL) is an association which operates a professional ice hockey league based in East Asia, with teams from Japan, South Korea, and formerly China and Russia. The league is headquartered in Japan. At the end of the playoffs every year the winner is awarded the Championship Trophy.
The league was formed in 2003 due to declining popularity in the Japan Ice Hockey League and the folding of the Korean Ice Hockey League. It was formed with the goal of promoting hockey and developing players' skills. The league initially comprised five teams in two countries. It expanded to highs of four countries (2004–05 season) and nine teams (2005–06 season) and it comprised eight teams from three countries in the 2013–14 season. Prior to the 2014–15 season, a Russian team from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, HC Sakhalin, was affiliated to the league.
The league draws most of its players from the home countries of its teams. However, the league allows each team a certain number of foreign imports on their roster.
History
2003–2008 The league was formed after the collapse of the Korean ice hockey league and dissolution of the Japanese league. It was started with the goal of promoting hockey in Asia as well as helping the various participating countries develop their hockey programs and increase their showing in the Olympics. The first season was a shortened season of only five teams, and played as a tournament rather than a regular season. Four Japanese teams and a Korean team participated. The tournament lasted just two months and each team played four games, two at home and two away, against each other. Due to the shortened tournament format, there were no playoffs and the winner was declared from the point tally. The Nippon Paper Cranes won the tournament with 39 points. Joel Prpic from Kokudo was the assist and points leader with 25 assists and 33 points. Ryan Haruo Kuwabara, of the Cranes, was the scoring leader with 15 goals.
The 2004–05 season was the first full season for the league, and was seen by some to be the inaugural season. Before the season began, there was already interest by the National Hockey League (NHL) in China's hockey program. In addition to the five teams which took part in the tournament the year before, the league added Golden Amur from Russia as well as Harbin and Qiqihar from China. The first season had a schedule of 42 games. Teams played each other six times during the season. In December 2004 there was speculation by the South Korean media that North Korea could potentially field a team in the league, but that never materialized. The league also had an all-star game which took place on 22 and 23 January 2005 in Kushiro. The league was broken up into two teams, the Blue Orion and Red Antares. Fans voted on their favorite players and coaches. The most popular vote was for the forward position on the Blue Orion which received over 45,000 votes. Masatoshi Ito received the most votes with 9741. The skill competition and game were both won by the Blue Orion. The regular season finished with the Nippon Paper Cranes and Kokudo both having 98 points. After applying the league's tie-breaking procedure, the Nippon Paper Cranes were ranked first. The Nippon Paper Cranes also won the points race holding the top three spots in goals scored with Masatoshi Ito taking top honours at 33 goals. Darcy Mitani, also from the Cranes, took top spot in assists with 44 and points with 69. The playoffs saw the top four teams advance. The Golden Amur were swept in three games by Kokudo and the Cranes beat the Oji Paper in a close series, three games to one. The final was between the Cranes and Kokudo. While the Cranes won the first game, Kokudo won three games straight and won the playoffs. Chris Yule of Kokudo acquired ten points in the playoffs to lead the league while Chris Lindberg of the Cranes led the league in goals scored with six. Several players from Kokudo and the Cranes all had five assists. The 2005 ALH Awards were held in Tokyo and announced in April. Among the awards Kikuchi Naoya a goaltender for Kokudo was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Matsuda Keisuke of the Nikkō Ice Bucks was voted Young Guy of the Year.
The 2005–06 season saw a number of changes to the make-up of Asia League. In the off-season, the Golden Amur withdrew from the league due to financial trouble. At the same time it was announced that Kangwon Land was showing interest in entering a team in the league. However, only a few weeks later, they withdrew their application because it was felt their team wasn't strong enough to enter the league. The league also revised the limits on the number of imports some teams were allowed to have. Halla and the Ice Bucks were both allowed to carry an additional import player while the two Chinese teams were permitted two more import players. It was announced in July 2005 that Anyang Halla Winia would change their name to Anyang Halla. In late July, the league announced that Kangwon Land had acquired some imports and strengthened the team. They had applied again and were expected to enter the league that season. As well another new team, the Nordic Vikings, was expected to join the league. The Nordic Vikings were a Swedish-Chinese joint venture that saw the team based in Beijing. As part of the venture, Swedish players were also sent to the two existing Chinese teams. This brought the league to its high point of nine teams. Even though there were more teams than in the previous season the league reduced the number of games from 42 to 38, which resulted in an uneven schedule. For example, the Korean teams played nine games against each other, while playing four games against the teams from Japan and China except the Nordic Vikings, whom they played five times. At the end of the regular season, the Nippon Paper Cranes had captured first place for a second year in a row with 95 points. While the Cranes had a very strong showing in the point rankings, the top goal scorer was Song Dong-hwan from Anyang Halla with 31. Derek Plante led in assists with 47 and overall points with 75. The top six teams advanced to the playoffs with the top two teams, the Cranes and Halla, receiving a bye to the semi-finals. In the first round, Kokudo swept the Ice Bucks while Oji Paper defeated the Vikings three games to one. In the second round Kokudo faced Halla, who were making their playoff debut. Kokudo won that series three games to one. On the other side, the Cranes faced off against Oji Paper and swept them in three games. The final was again the Cranes vs Kokudo and once again Kokudo emerged victorious, claiming the title for the second year in a row. Kokudo had three players claiming the three top points spots for the playoffs. Joel Prpic was the top goal scorer with nine, Kiyoshi Fujita had the most assists with 12 and Takahito Suzuki had the most points with 18. Kikuchi Naoya won MVP of the year for the second time and Young Guy of the Year went to Masahito Nishiwaki of the Cranes.
Further changes were seen in the league in the 2006–07 season. After the last season The Nordic Vikings were looking for sponsors for the team. However, they failed to find sufficient sponsorship and left the league due to financial trouble. Harbin moved their home rink to Beijing and changed their name to Hosa to reflect this. Qiqihar acquired a new sponsor and changed their name to Changchun Fuao. Kokudo also changed their name to the Seibu Prince Rabbits. With eight teams, the league further reduced the number of games played to 34, which again resulted in an uneven play schedule. The Chinese-based teams, for example, played each other and the Korean teams each six times but only played the Japanese teams four times. The Paper Cranes easily won the regular season again finishing first with 86 points. With the previous year's goal leader not participating the scoring race went to Tim Smith of Kangwon Land. He led the league with 30 goals. Patrik Martinec of Halla led the league with 53 assists and 71 points. The playoffs followed the same format as the year before and six teams advanced. Kangwon Land swept Halla in three games and Oji Paper beat the Ice Bucks three games to one. While it was inevitable with two Korean teams facing each other, it marks the first time a non-Japanese team won a playoff series in Asia League. The second round was over quickly as the Cranes and Rabbits who both had byes swept their opponents in three games each. For the third year in a row the final was between the Paper Cranes and the Rabbits. The Cranes took the series in four games. Joel Prpic won himself another scoring title as he led the playoffs in goals, 8, and points, 17. Kengo Itoh for the Cranes had the most assists with 13. At the awards ceremony Itoh also took the award for MVP of the Year while Jun Tonosaki received the award for Young Guy of the Year.
The 2007–08 season started with a further reduction in teams. Harbin and Qiqihar combined into a single team and became owned and operated by the San Jose Sharks. They took the name of their new owner and became the China Sharks. Kangwon Land renamed to High1. With only seven teams, the league reduced the number of games played to its lowest at just 30 games. The league continued with an unbalanced schedule and the Korean and Chinese teams played each other more than the Japanese teams did. After three years of dominance, the Nippon Paper Cranes slipped to fourth place and the regular season was won by the Prince Rabbits. Alex Kim, playing for High1, recorded the most goals with 23 and most points with 51. Joel Prpic continued to find himself on top of the pack with 30 assists. With six of seven teams going to the playoffs, the Sharks were the only team that didn't find themselves in a playoff spot. The first round was over quickly as the Cranes swept Halla in three games and Oji did the same to the Ice Bucks. Nippon faced their rivals, the Rabbits, in the second round and defeated them three to one. High1 couldn't repeat their success from the previous year by winning a series and were swept by Oji in three games. For the first time, the final series was not between the Cranes and Rabbits. Oji continued to roll over their opponents and swept the Cranes, marking the only time a team in Asia League had swept its way through three rounds. Due to their dominance on the ice, the point race was also swept by Oji. Takeshi Saito led the playoffs with nine assists and 15 points, while Shane Endicott had the most goals with 6. Kunihiko Sakurai, also from Oji, won the MVP of the Year and Eum Hyun-seung, from High1, won the Young Guy of the Year award.
Since 2008