Nikkō Ice Bucks

The HC Nikkō Ice Bucks (ホッケークラブ日光アイスバックス, Hokkē Kurabu Nikkō Aisu Bakkusu) is an Asia League Ice Hockey team based in Nikkō, Tochigi, Japan.

Nikkō Ice Bucks
CityNikkō, Tochigi
LeagueAsia League Ice Hockey
Founded1999 (1999)
Home arenaNikkō Kirifuri Ice Arena (capacity 2,000)
Colours              
Owner(s)Kobayashi Sumio
Head coachAri-Pekka Siekkinen
CaptainSetaka Tetsuo
Websitehttp://www.icebucks.jp/

Logo design: The word IceBucks in italicized English in black with white trim, with the words "NIKKO KOBE" in bold italics in orange trimmed with white

Mascot: An orange and white furred male deer wearing a hockey helmet.

History
Nikko Icebucks in 2018

The Nikkō area has a long history of ice hockey, with the Furukawa Electric semi-professional team (one of the oldest in Japan) having been established in 1925, and becoming a founding member of the Japanese Ice Hockey League in 1966. In 1999, however, the team was forced to disband due to financial difficulties.

A outflow of support from the city and local financing allowed the team to be recreated as a club team, supported locally. It was renamed the HC Nikkō IceBucks and joined the league in time for the next season's start. The team, despite fervent local support, was never one of the successes of the JIHL even when they were supported as Furukawa Electric, and had a rocky start as the HC Nikkō IceBucks, having to relaunch their business model in 2001. The team has consistently placed near or at the bottom of the league.

When the league expanded into the Asia League Ice Hockey, Nikkō was one of the teams that was part of the new league. In the summer of 2005, the team arranged to play a number of its home games in Kobe, Hyogo, and changed its name to the Nikkō Kobe IceBucks to reflect its new two-city home. In 2007–2008 season Kobe is no longer home and the name was reverted to the older HC Nikkō Ice Bucks.

On January 29, 2020, It was announce that five players would represent Japan in the 3rd round of qualifiers for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.[1]

Honours

Year-by-year record
Sumida Yousuke wearing the team's away jersey which was introduced in 2011

JIHL 1999–2004
SeasonGPWW(OT)W(PS)TL(PS)L(OT)LGFGAPTSFinishPlayoffs
1999-00 30352245106116th/6Out of playoffs
2000–01 401012991164216th/6Out of playoffs
2001–02 40622222610316323.06th/6Out of playoffs
2002–03 3270412186811423.05th/5Out of playoffs
2002–03 241010121331124.54th/4?
2003–04 12000001219560.04th/4?

ALIH 2003–present

complete records for previous seasons[2]

SeasonGPWW(OT)W(GWS)*TL(GWS)*L(OT)LGFGAPTSFinishPlayoffs
2003–04 1620—2—012386765th/5No Playoffs due to shortened season
2004–05 42131—2—224110125456th/8–
2005–06 38162—2—117103118556th/9Lost in quarter-final
2006–07 34120—1—02190158376th/8Lost in semi-final
2007–08 3082—2—01860109306th/7Lost in quarter-final
2008–09 36421—112774161207th/7–
2009–10 361221—2217103118466th/7–
2010–11 361031—022095112406th/7–
2011–12 361804—0113158103633rd/7–
2012–13 421533—2019123141595th/7–
Totals 34611015109591889541212–––

*prior to the 2008–2009 season, there were no shoot-outs and games ended in a tie

Current roster
Goaltenders
# Country Player Catches Acquired Place of Birth
1 Ryu Shotaro L 2014 Taiwa, Japan
38 Ono Kohei L 2011 Machida, Japan
44 Fukufuji Yutaka (A) L 2010 Kushiro, Japan
Defencemen
# Country Player Shoots Acquired Place of Birth
4 Sakata Shun L 2018 Kushiro, Japan
5 Ishikawa Takahiro L 2016 Nikkō, Japan
8 Soma Shuto L 2018 Sapporo, Japan
9 Sato Hiroto (A) L 2014 Kushiro, Japan
27 Joonas Hurri L 2018 Lahti, Finland
28 Otsu Yusei L 2014 Nikkō, Japan
49 Tanaka Kentaro R 2017 West Vancouver, Canada
51 Watanabe Akihide L 2018 Nikkō, Japan
54 Ito Goshi R 2015 Tomakomai, Japan
55 Artyom Dorofeyev L 2018 Moscow, Russia
74 Kawai Ryuichi L 2015 Sapporo, Japan
Forwards
# Country Player Position Shoots Acquired Place of Birth
12 Konno Mitsuyoshi W R 2013 Tomakomai, Japan
13 Iwamoto Kazuma (A) C L 2013 Tomakomai, Japan
16 Saito Tetsuya (C) C R 2013 Kushiro, Japan
17 Inui Jyunya RW R 2017 Utsunomiya, Japan
18 Furuhashi Makuru LW L 2016 Nikkō, Japan
22 Omuku Maito F L 2016 Obihiro, Japan
25 Joonas Alanne LW/RW L 2011 Rovaniemi, Finland
30 Gorai Takuto C L 2013 Sapporo, Japan
53 Terao Hiromichi (A) LW L 2017 Nikkō, Japan
86 Hikosaka Yu W/C R 2016 Tokyo, Japan
88 Terao Yuri LW L 2014 Nikkō, Japan
91 Saito Takeshi RW R 2014 Kushiro, Japan
92 Deguchi Keita F L 2018 Tomakomai, Japan

Past import players
gollark: It vaguely hurts my eyes somehow so perhaps I should decrease the scrolling speed.
gollark: This is actually interesting. The music being played seems to be missing a chunk of the frequency spectrum for some reason.
gollark: It would need good amplifiers, I suppose, but it's possible. I'll have to survey all our listeners to determine how many actual listening people each thing corresponds to (factoring in time spent with it running but away from the computer, and such).
gollark: JS doesn't support **C** properly, so no.
gollark: It's not an arbitrary number, the backend *actually does* fetch this from the server doing all the streams.

References
  1. https://www.icebucks.jp/news/14446
  2. "Archive Record". Alhockey.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
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