Team Asia - S62

[Greg_Di 1,030]

 

 

Today we look back at one of the most successful Team Asia WJC teams that have played in the tournament and that would be the Team Asia of S62.  While the Season 63 team also attained a silver medal, the S62 team had more wins in the round robin and was more of an offensive powerhouse.

In this article we will also look back at some of the all time leaders in the WJC for team Asia.

These were the golden generation of Asian hockey with S62 being the first time Team Asia won a medal and S63 being one of the most exciting finals in recent WJC history. Asia has not been back to the finals since that time and will be looking to get back into the finals. While we will only focus on the S62 team in this article, we had to mention the S63 team as they were also really great.

The S62 roster was composed of some great players that will forever live in Asian hockey history and some who have become VHL greats.

The forward group consisted of:
                                                               

Sergei Kovalev                                         

Vyacheslav Smirnov                             

Ryuu Crimson                                         

Nikita Filpachyev                                   

Zhang Shou Tian

Kisshan Shan

Hyuk-Kyu Kim

Lars Tommernes

Evgeni Golovoy

The Defense Core

Maxim Kovalchuk           

Tzuyu

Dylan Nguyen

Gregor Rasputinov 

And the goalie:

Alexander Pepper


On paper the team looked pretty good but many thought this team did not have the proper depth to make a run to the finals. Those who thought that were extremely wrong.

This team went undefeated into the finals and scored the most goals of the tournament with 37. The eventual winners, Canada, finished second in goals with 34. The final was one to remember and probably one of the more exciting finals in recent WJC History.

The final was an offensive game with both teams abandoning any more of defense. The final ended 6-5 for Canada due to 4 goals being scored in the first period. The shots ended up being 47-46 in favour of Canada. Sergei Kovalev led the Asian team with 2 goals and 3 points.

In my opinion if Team Asia would have played a little more defensively, they would have achieved Gold, they had the right players and chemistry but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. During the next WJC, Asia would once again face Team Canada but they would go down 2-1 in Overtime, once again missing their first gold.

As we wrap up this article we also look at the top 3 players to have played for Team Asia in the WJC.

The top player so far for Asia has been Defenseman Dylan Nguyen who played 3 seasons on the WJC squad. Between Season 62-64 Nguyen has put up 8 goals, 36 assists for a total of 44 points. He is by far the top Asian player and will almost be impossible to catch due to most players only eligible to play for one season.

Following up in second is RW Kisshan Shan who also played 3 seasons. He also played during the S62-64 WJC and put up 16 goals, 18 assists and 34 points.

We also can’t leave out Alexander Pepper who played on both silver winning teams in S62 and S63. He was the workhorse for Team Asia and is also currently the leader in Minutes played in the WJC with 1228. Without him Asia would not stood a chance.

We now look forward to this years WJC to see if Team Asia can finally bring home the elusive gold and if any players from this years crop will end up as top players for Team Asia