Ice hockey is a contact team sport played
on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams
of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized
rubber puck into their opponent's net to score
points.
The sport is known to be fast-paced and physical,
with teams usually consisting of six players
each: one goaltender, and five players who
skate up and down the ice trying to take the
puck and score a goal against the opposing
team.
Ice hockey is most popular in Canada, central
and eastern Europe, the Nordic countries,
Russia and the United States.
Ice hockey is the official national winter
sport of Canada.
In addition, ice hockey is the most popular
winter sport in Belarus, Croatia, the Czech
Republic, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia,
Sweden, and Switzerland.
North America's National Hockey League (NHL)
is the highest level for men's ice hockey
and the strongest professional ice hockey
league in the world.
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is the
highest league in Russia and much of Eastern
Europe.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)
is the formal governing body for international
ice hockey, with the IIHF managing international
tournaments and maintaining the IIHF World
Ranking.
Worldwide, there are ice hockey federations
in 76 countries.In Canada, the United States,
Nordic countries, and some other European
countries the sport is known simply as hockey;
the name "ice hockey" is used in places where
"hockey" more often refers to the more popular
field hockey, such as countries in South America,
Asia, Africa, Australasia, and some European
countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland
and the Netherlands.Ice hockey is believed
to have evolved from simple stick and ball
games played in the 18th and 19th century
United Kingdom and elsewhere.
These games were brought to North America
and several similar winter games using informal
rules as they were developed, such as "shinny"
and "ice polo".
The contemporary sport of ice hockey was developed
in Canada, most notably in Montreal, where
the first indoor hockey game was played on
March 3, 1875.
Some characteristics of that game, such as
the length of the ice rink and the use of
a puck, have been retained to this day.
Amateur ice hockey leagues began in the 1880s,
and professional ice hockey originated around
1900.
The Stanley Cup, emblematic of ice hockey
club supremacy, was first awarded in 1893
to recognize the Canadian amateur champion
and later became the championship trophy of
the NHL.
In the early 1900s, the Canadian rules were
adopted by the Ligue Internationale de Hockey
sur Glace, the precursor of the IIHF and the
sport was played for the first time in the
Olympics in the 1920 Summer Olympics.
In international competitions, the national
teams of six countries (the "Big Six") predominate:
Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden
and the United States.
Of the 69 medals awarded all-time in men's
competition at the Olympics, only six medals
were not awarded to one of those countries
(or two of their precursors, the Soviet Union
for Russia, and Czechoslovakia for the Czech
Republic).
In the annual Ice Hockey World Championships,
177 of 201 medals have been awarded to the
six nations.
Teams outside the "Big Six" have won only
five medals in either competition since 1953.
The World Cup of Hockey is organized by the
National Hockey League and the National Hockey
League Players' Association (NHLPA), unlike
the annual World Ice Hockey Championships
and quadrennial Olympic tournament, both run
by the International Ice Hockey Federation
(IIHF).
World Cup games are played under NHL rules
and not those of the IIHF, and the tournament
occurs prior to the NHL pre-season, allowing
for all the NHL's players to be available,
unlike the World Championships, which overlaps
with the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs.
All 12 Women's Olympic and 36 IIHF World Women's
Championships medals have been awarded to
one of these six countries, and every gold
medal in both competitions has been won by
either the Canadian national team or the United
States national team.
== History ==
=== Name ===
In England, field hockey has been historically
referred to as simply "hockey" and it is in
historical references to field hockey that
the name "hockey" first appears.
The first known mention spelled as "hockey"
is in the 1773 book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes,
to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author:
Including a New Mode of Infant Education,
by Richard Johnson (Pseud.
Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was
titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey".
The 1573 Statute of Galway banned a sport
called "'hokie'—the hurling of a little
ball with sticks or staves".
A form of this word was thus being used in
the 16th century, though much removed from
its current usage.The belief that hockey was
mentioned in a 1363 proclamation by King Edward
III of England is based on modern translations
of the proclamation, which was originally
in Latin and explicitly forbade the games
"Pilam Manualem, Pedivam, & Bacularem: & ad
Canibucam & Gallorum Pugnam".
The English historian and biographer John
Strype did not use the word "hockey" when
he translated the proclamation in 1720, instead
translating "Canibucam" as "Cambuck"; this
may have referred to either an early form
of hockey or a game more similar to golf or
croquet.According to the Austin Hockey Association,
the word "puck" derives from the Scottish
Gaelic puc or the Irish poc (to poke, punch
or deliver a blow).
"...The blow given by a hurler to the ball
with his camán or hurley is always called
a puck."
=== Precursors ===
Stick-and-ball games date back to pre-Christian
times.
In Europe, these games included the Irish
game of hurling, the closely related Scottish
game of shinty and versions of field hockey
(including "bandy ball", played in England).
IJscolf, a game resembling colf on an ice-covered
surface, was popular in the Low Countries
between the Middle Ages and the Dutch Golden
Age.
It was played with a wooden curved bat (called
a colf or kolf), a wooden or leather ball
and two poles (or nearby landmarks), with
the objective to hit the chosen point using
the least number of strokes.
A similar game (knattleikr) had been played
for a thousand years or more by the Scandinavian
peoples, as documented in the Icelandic sagas.
Polo has been referred to as "hockey on horseback".
In England, field hockey developed in the
late 17th century, and there is evidence that
some games of field hockey took place on the
ice.
These games of "hockey on ice" were sometimes
played with a "bung" (a plug of cork or oak
used as a stopper on a barrel).
William Pierre Le Cocq stated, in a 1799 letter
written in Chesham, England:
I must now describe to you the game of Hockey;
we have each a stick turning up at the end.
We get a bung.
There are two sides one of them knocks one
way and the other side the other way.
If any one of the sides makes the bung reach
that end of the churchyard it is victorious.
A 1797 engraving unearthed by Swedish sport
historians Carl Gidén and Patrick Houda shows
a person on skates with a stick and bung on
the River Thames, probably in December 1796.British
soldiers and immigrants to Canada and the
United States brought their stick-and-ball
games with them and played them on the ice
and snow of winter.
In 1825, John Franklin wrote "The game of
hockey played on the ice was the morning sport"
on Great Bear Lake during one of his Arctic
expeditions.
A mid-1830s watercolour portrays New Brunswick
lieutenant-governor Archibald Campbell and
his family with British soldiers on skates
playing a stick-on-ice sport.
Captain R.G.A.
Levinge, a British Army officer in New Brunswick
during Campbell's time, wrote about "hockey
on ice" on Chippewa Creek (a tributary of
the Niagara River) in 1839.
In 1843 another British Army officer in Kingston,
Ontario wrote, "Began to skate this year,
improved quickly and had great fun at hockey
on the ice."
An 1859 Boston Evening Gazette article referred
to an early game of hockey on ice in Halifax
that year.
An 1835 painting by John O'Toole depicts skaters
with sticks and bung on a frozen stream in
the American state of West Virginia, at that
time still part of Virginia.In the same era,
the Mi'kmaq, a First Nations people of the
Canadian Maritimes, also had a stick-and-ball
game.
Canadian oral histories describe a traditional
stick-and-ball game played by the Mi'kmaq,
and Silas Tertius Rand (in his 1894 Legends
of the Micmacs) describes a Mi'kmaq ball game
known as tooadijik.
Rand also describes a game played (probably
after European contact) with hurleys, known
as wolchamaadijik.
Sticks made by the Mi'kmaq were used by the
British for their games.
Early 19th-century paintings depict shinney
(or "shinny"), an early form of hockey with
no standard rules which was played in Nova
Scotia.
Many of these early games absorbed the physical
aggression of what the Onondaga called dehuntshigwa'es
(lacrosse).
Shinney was played on the St. Lawrence River
at Montreal and Quebec City, and in Kingston,
Ontario and Ottawa, Ontario.
The number of players was often large.
To this day, shinney (derived from "shinty")
is a popular Canadian term for an informal
type of hockey, either ice or street hockey.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton, in The Attache:
Second Series (published in 1844) imagined
a dialogue, between two of the novel's characters,
which mentions playing "hurly on the long
pond on the ice".
This has been interpreted by some historians
from Windsor, Nova Scotia as reminiscence
of the days when the author was a student
at King's College School in that town in 1810
and earlier.
Based on Haliburton's quote, claims were made
that modern hockey was invented in Windsor,
Nova Scotia, by King's College students and
perhaps named after an individual ("Colonel
Hockey's game").
Others claim that the origins of hockey come
from games played in the area of Dartmouth
and Halifax in Nova Scotia.
However, several references have been found
to hurling and shinty being played on the
ice long before the earliest references from
both Windsor and Dartmouth/Halifax, and the
word "hockey" was used to designate a stick-and-ball
game at least as far back as 1773, as it was
mentioned in the book Juvenile Sports and
Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of
the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant
Education by Richard Johnson (Pseud.
Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was
titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey".
=== Initial development ===
While the game's origins lie elsewhere, Montreal
is at the centre of the development of the
sport of contemporary ice hockey, and is recognized
as the birthplace of organized ice hockey.
On March 3, 1875, the first organized indoor
game was played at Montreal's Victoria Skating
Rink between two nine-player teams, including
James Creighton and several McGill University
students.
Instead of a ball or bung, the game featured
a "flat circular piece of wood" (to keep it
in the rink and to protect spectators).
The goal posts were 8 feet (2.4 m) apart (today's
goals are six feet wide).
In 1876, games played in Montreal were "conducted
under the 'Hockey Association' rules"; the
Hockey Association was England's field hockey
organization.
In 1877, The Gazette (Montreal) published
a list of seven rules, six of which were largely
based on six of the Hockey Association's twelve
rules, with only minor differences (even the
word "ball" was kept); the one added rule
explained how disputes should be settled.
The McGill University Hockey Club, the first
ice hockey club, was founded in 1877 (followed
by the Quebec Hockey Club in 1878 and the
Montreal Victorias in 1881).
In 1880, the number of players per side was
reduced from nine to seven.The number of teams
grew, enough to hold the first "world championship"
of ice hockey at Montreal's annual Winter
Carnival in 1883.
The McGill team won the tournament and was
awarded the "Carnival Cup".
The game was divided into thirty-minute halves.
The positions were now named: left and right
wing, centre, rover, point and cover-point,
and goaltender.
In 1886, the teams competing at the Winter
Carnival organized the Amateur Hockey Association
of Canada (AHAC), and played a season comprising
"challenges" to the existing champion.
In Europe, it is believed that in 1885 the
Oxford University Ice Hockey Club was formed
to play the first Ice Hockey Varsity Match
against traditional rival Cambridge in St.
Moritz, Switzerland; however, this is undocumented.
The match was won by the Oxford Dark Blues,
6–0; the first photographs and team lists
date from 1895.
This rivalry continues, claiming to be the
oldest hockey rivalry in history; a similar
claim is made about the rivalry between Queen's
University and Royal Military College of Kingston,
Ontario.
Since 1986, considered the 100th anniversary
of the rivalry, teams of the two colleges
play for the Carr-Harris Cup.In 1888, the
Governor General of Canada, Lord Stanley of
Preston (whose sons and daughter were hockey
enthusiasts), first attended the Montreal
Winter Carnival tournament and was impressed
with the game.
In 1892, realizing that there was no recognition
for the best team in Canada (although a number
of leagues had championship trophies), he
purchased a silver bowl for use as a trophy.
The Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (which later
became known as the Stanley Cup) was first
awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club,
champions of the AHAC; it continues to be
awarded annually to the National Hockey League's
championship team.
Stanley's son Arthur helped organize the Ontario
Hockey Association, and Stanley's daughter
Isobel was one of the first women to play
ice hockey.
By 1893, there were almost a hundred teams
in Montreal alone; in addition, there were
leagues throughout Canada.
Winnipeg hockey players used cricket pads
to better protect the goaltender's legs; they
also introduced the "scoop" shot, or what
is now known as the wrist shot.
William Fairbrother, from Ontario, Canada
is credited with inventing the ice hockey
net in the 1890s.
Goal nets became a standard feature of the
Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) in 1900.
Left and right defence began to replace the
point and cover-point positions in the OHA
in 1906.In the United States, "ice polo",
played with a ball rather than a puck, was
popular during this period; however, by 1893
Yale University and Johns Hopkins University
held their first ice hockey matches.
American financier Malcolm Greene Chace is
credited with being the father of hockey in
the United States.
In 1892, as an amateur tennis player, Chace
visited Niagara Falls, New York for a tennis
match, where he met some Canadian hockey players.
Soon afterwards, Chace put together a team
of men from Yale, Brown, and Harvard, and
toured across Canada as captain of this team.
The first collegiate hockey match in the United
States was played between Yale University
and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Yale, led by captain Chace, beat Hopkins,
2–1.
In 1896, the first ice hockey league in the
US was formed.
The US Amateur Hockey League was founded in
New York City, shortly after the opening of
the artificial-ice St. Nicholas Rink.
Lord Stanley's five sons were instrumental
in bringing ice hockey to Europe, defeating
a court team (which included the future Edward
VII and George V) at Buckingham Palace in
1895.
By 1903, a five-team league had been founded.
The Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace
was founded in 1908 to govern international
competition, and the first European championship
was won by Great Britain in 1910.
The sport grew further in Europe in the 1920s,
after ice hockey became an Olympic sport.
Many bandy players switched to hockey so as
to be able to compete in the Olympics.
Bandy remained popular in the Soviet Union,
which only started its ice hockey program
in the 1950s.
In the mid-20th century, the Ligue became
the International Ice Hockey Federation.
As the popularity of ice hockey as a spectator
sport grew, earlier rinks were replaced by
larger rinks.
Most of the early indoor ice rinks have been
demolished; Montreal's Victoria Rink, built
in 1862, was demolished in 1925.
Many older rinks succumbed to fire, such as
Denman Arena, Dey's Arena, Quebec Skating
Rink and Montreal Arena, a hazard of the buildings'
wood construction.
The Stannus Street Rink in Windsor, Nova Scotia
(built in 1897) may be the oldest still in
existence; however, it is no longer used for
hockey.
The Aberdeen Pavilion (built in 1898) in Ottawa
was used for hockey in 1904 and is the oldest
existing facility that has hosted Stanley
Cup games.
The oldest indoor ice hockey arena still in
use today for hockey is Boston's Matthews
Arena, which was built in 1910.
It has been modified extensively several times
in its history and is used today by Northeastern
University for hockey and other sports.
It was the original home rink of the Boston
Bruins professional team, itself the oldest
United States-based team in the NHL, starting
play in the league in today's Matthews Arena
on December 1, 1924.
Madison Square Garden in New York City, built
in 1968, is the oldest continuously-operating
arena in the NHL.
=== Professional era ===
Professional hockey has existed since the
early 20th century.
By 1902, the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League
was the first to employ professionals.
The league joined with teams in Michigan and
Ontario to form the first fully professional
league—the International Professional Hockey
League (IPHL)—in 1904.
The WPHL and IPHL hired players from Canada;
in response, Canadian leagues began to pay
players (who played with amateurs).
The IPHL, cut off from its largest source
of players, disbanded in 1907.
By then, several professional hockey leagues
were operating in Canada (with leagues in
Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec).
In 1910, the National Hockey Association (NHA)
was formed in Montreal.
The NHA would further refine the rules: dropping
the rover position, dividing the game into
three 20-minute periods and introducing minor
and major penalties.
After re-organizing as the National Hockey
League in 1917, the league expanded into the
United States, starting with the Boston Bruins
in 1924.
Professional hockey leagues developed later
in Europe, but amateur leagues leading to
national championships were in place.
One of the first was the Swiss National League
A, founded in 1916.
Today, professional leagues have been introduced
in most countries of Europe.
Top European leagues include the Kontinental
Hockey League, the Czech Extraliga, the Finnish
Liiga and the Swedish Hockey League.
== Game ==
While the general characteristics of the game
stay the same wherever it is played, the exact
rules depend on the particular code of play
being used.
The two most important codes are those of
the IIHF and the NHL.
Both of the codes, and others, originated
from Canadian rules of ice hockey of the early
20th Century.
Ice hockey is played on a hockey rink.
During normal play, there are six players
per side on the ice at any time, one of them
being the goaltender, each of whom is on ice
skates.
The objective of the game is to score goals
by shooting a hard vulcanized rubber disc,
the puck, into the opponent's goal net, which
is placed at the opposite end of the rink.
The players use their sticks to pass or shoot
the puck.
Within certain restrictions, players may redirect
the puck with any part of their body.
Players may not hold the puck in their hand
and are prohibited from using their hands
to pass the puck to their teammates, unless
they are in the defensive zone.
Players are also prohibited from kicking the
puck into the opponent's goal, though unintentional
redirections off the skate are permitted.
Players may not intentionally bat the puck
into the net with their hands.
Hockey is an "off-side" game, meaning that
forward passes are allowed, unlike in rugby.
Before the 1930s hockey was an on-side game,
meaning that only backward passes were allowed.
Those rules favoured individual stick-handling
as a key means of driving the puck forward.
With the arrival of offside rules, the forward
pass transformed hockey into a truly team
sport, where individual performance diminished
in importance relative to team play, which
could now be coordinated over the entire surface
of the ice as opposed to merely rearward players.The
six players on each team are typically divided
into three forwards, two defencemen, and a
goaltender.
The term skaters is typically used to describe
all players who are not goaltenders.
The forward positions consist of a centre
and two wingers: a left wing and a right wing.
Forwards often play together as units or lines,
with the same three forwards always playing
together.
The defencemen usually stay together as a
pair generally divided between left and right.
Left and right side wingers or defencemen
are generally positioned as such, based on
the side on which they carry their stick.
A substitution of an entire unit at once is
called a line change.
Teams typically employ alternate sets of forward
lines and defensive pairings when shorthanded
or on a power play.
The goaltender stands in a, usually blue,
semi-circle called the crease in the defensive
zone keeping pucks from going in.
Substitutions are permitted at any time during
the game, although during a stoppage of play
the home team is permitted the final change.
When players are substituted during play,
it is called changing on the fly.
A new NHL rule added in the 2005–06 season
prevents a team from changing their line after
they ice the puck.
The boards surrounding the ice help keep the
puck in play and they can also be used as
tools to play the puck.
Players are permitted to "bodycheck" opponents
into the boards as a means of stopping progress.
The referees, linesmen and the outsides of
the goal are "in play" and do not cause a
stoppage of the game when the puck or players
are influenced (by either bouncing or colliding)
into them.
Play can be stopped if the goal is knocked
out of position.
Play often proceeds for minutes without interruption.
When play is stopped, it is restarted with
a "faceoff".
Two players "face" each other and an official
drops the puck to the ice, where the two players
attempt to gain control of the puck.
Markings (circles) on the ice indicate the
locations for the faceoff and guide the positioning
of players.
The three major rules of play in ice hockey
that limit the movement of the puck: "offside",
"icing", and the puck going out of play.
A player is "offside" if he enters his opponent's
zone before the puck itself.
Under many situations, a player may not "ice
the puck", shoot the puck all the way across
both the centre line and the opponent's goal
line.
The puck goes "out of play" whenever it goes
past the perimeter of the ice rink (onto the
player benches, over the "glass," or onto
the protective netting above the glass) and
a stoppage of play is called by the officials
using whistles.
It also does not matter if the puck comes
back onto the ice surface from those areas
as the puck is considered dead once it leaves
the perimeter of the rink.
Under IIHF rules, each team may carry a maximum
of 20 players and two goaltenders on their
roster.
NHL rules restrict the total number of players
per game to 18, plus two goaltenders.
In the NHL, the players are usually divided
into four lines of three forwards, and into
three pairs of defencemen.
On occasion, teams may elect to substitute
an extra defenceman for a forward.
The seventh defenceman may play as a substitute
defenceman, spend the game on the bench, or
if a team chooses to play four lines then
this seventh defenceman may see ice-time on
the fourth line as a forward.
=== Periods and overtime ===
A professional game consists of three "periods"
of twenty minutes, the clock running only
when the puck is in play.
The teams change ends after each period of
play, including overtime.
Recreational leagues and children's leagues
often play shorter games, generally with three
shorter periods of play.
Various procedures are used if a tie occurs.
In tournament play, as well as in the NHL
playoffs, North Americans favour sudden death
overtime, in which the teams continue to play
twenty-minute periods until a goal is scored.
Up until the 1999–2000 season regular season
NHL games were settled with a single five-minute
sudden death period with five players (plus
a goalie) per side, with both teams awarded
one point in the standings in the event of
a tie.
With a goal, the winning team would be awarded
two points and the losing team none (just
as if they had lost in regulation).
From 1999–2000 until 2003–04, the National
Hockey League decided ties by playing a single
five-minute sudden death overtime period with
each team having four skaters per side (plus
the goalie) to "open up" the game.
In the event of a tie, each team would still
receive one point in the standings but in
the event of a victory the winning team would
be awarded two points in the standings and
the losing team one point.
The idea was to discourage teams from playing
for a tie, since previously some teams might
have preferred a tie and 1 point to risking
a loss and zero points.
The only exception to this rule is if a team
opts to pull their goalie in exchange for
an extra skater during overtime and is subsequently
scored upon (an "empty net" goal), in which
case the losing team receives no points for
the overtime loss.
Since the 2015–16 season, the single five-minute
sudden death overtime session involves three
skaters on each side.
Since three skaters must always be on the
ice in an NHL game, the consequences of penalties
are slightly different from those during regulation
play.
If a team is on a powerplay when overtime
begins, that team will play with more than
three skaters (usually four, very rarely five)
until the expiration of the penalty.
Any penalty during overtime that would result
in a team losing a skater during regulation
instead causes the non-penalized team to add
a skater.
Once the penalized team's penalty ends, the
number of skaters on each side is adjusted
accordingly, with the penalized team adding
a skater in regulation and the non-penalized
team subtracting a skater in overtime.
This goes until the next stoppage of play.International
play and several North American professional
leagues, including the NHL (in the regular
season), now use an overtime period identical
to that from 99–00 – 03–04 followed
by a penalty shootout.
If the score remains tied after an extra overtime
period, the subsequent shootout consists of
three players from each team taking penalty
shots.
After these six total shots, the team with
the most goals is awarded the victory.
If the score is still tied, the shootout then
proceeds to a sudden death format.
Regardless of the number of goals scored during
the shootout by either team, the final score
recorded will award the winning team one more
goal than the score at the end of regulation
time.
In the NHL if a game is decided in overtime
or by a shootout the winning team is awarded
two points in the standings and the losing
team is awarded one point.
Ties no longer occur in the NHL.
The overtime mode for the NHL playoffs differ
from the regular season.
In the playoffs there are no shootouts nor
ties.
If a game is tied after regulation an additional
20 minutes of 5 on 5 sudden death overtime
will be added.
In case of a tied game after the overtime,
multiple 20-minute overtimes will be played
until a team scores, which wins the match.
=== Penalties ===
In ice hockey, infractions of the rules lead
to play stoppages whereby the play is restarted
at a face off.
Some infractions result in the imposition
of a penalty to a player or team.
In the simplest case, the offending player
is sent to the "penalty box" and their team
has to play with one less player on the ice
for a designated amount of time.
Minor penalties last for two minutes, major
penalties last for five minutes, and a double
minor penalty is two consecutive penalties
of two minutes duration.
A single minor penalty may be extended by
a further two minutes for causing visible
injury to the victimized player.
This is usually when blood is drawn during
high sticking.
Players may be also assessed personal extended
penalties or game expulsions for misconduct
in addition to the penalty or penalties their
team must serve.
The team that has been given a penalty is
said to be playing "short-handed" while the
opposing team is on a "power play".
A two-minute minor penalty is often charged
for lesser infractions such as "tripping",
"elbowing", "roughing", "high-sticking", "delay
of the game", "too many players on the ice",
"boarding", illegal equipment, "charging"
(leaping into an opponent or body-checking
him after taking more than two strides), "holding",
holding the stick (grabbing an opponent's
stick), "interference", "hooking", "slashing",
"kneeing", "unsportsmanlike conduct" (arguing
a penalty call with referee, extremely vulgar
or inappropriate verbal comments), "butt-ending"
(striking an opponent with the knob of the
stick—a very rare penalty), "spearing",
or "cross-checking".
As of the 2005–2006 season, a minor penalty
is also assessed for "diving", where a player
embellishes or simulates an offence.
More egregious fouls may be penalized by a
four-minute double-minor penalty, particularly
those that injure the victimized player.
These penalties end either when the time runs
out or when the other team scores during the
power play.
In the case of a goal scored during the first
two minutes of a double-minor, the penalty
clock is set down to two minutes upon a score,
effectively expiring the first minor penalty.
Five-minute major penalties are called for
especially violent instances of most minor
infractions that result in intentional injury
to an opponent, or when a "minor" penalty
results in visible injury (such as bleeding),
as well as for fighting.
Major penalties are always served in full;
they do not terminate on a goal scored by
the other team.
Major penalties assessed for fighting are
typically offsetting, meaning neither team
is short-handed and the players exit the penalty
box upon a stoppage of play following the
expiration of their respective penalties.
The foul of "boarding" (defined as "check[ing]
an opponent in such a manner that causes the
opponent to be thrown violently in the boards")
is penalized either by a minor or major penalty
at the discretion of the referee, based on
the violent state of the hit.
A minor or major penalty for boarding is often
assessed when a player checks an opponent
from behind and into the boards.
Some varieties of penalties do not always
require the offending team to play a man short.
Concurrent five-minute major penalties in
the NHL usually result from fighting.
In the case of two players being assessed
five-minute fighting majors, both the players
serve five minutes without their team incurring
a loss of player (both teams still have a
full complement of players on the ice).
This differs with two players from opposing
sides getting minor penalties, at the same
time or at any intersecting moment, resulting
from more common infractions.
In this case, both teams will have only four
skating players (not counting the goaltender)
until one or both penalties expire (if one
penalty expires before the other, the opposing
team gets a power play for the remainder of
the time); this applies regardless of current
pending penalties.
However, in the NHL, a team always has at
least three skaters on the ice.
Thus, ten-minute misconduct penalties are
served in full by the penalized player, but
his team may immediately substitute another
player on the ice unless a minor or major
penalty is assessed in conjunction with the
misconduct (a two-and-ten or five-and-ten).
In this case, the team designates another
player to serve the minor or major; both players
go to the penalty box, but only the designee
may not be replaced, and he is released upon
the expiration of the two or five minutes,
at which point the ten-minute misconduct begins.
In addition, game misconducts are assessed
for deliberate intent to inflict severe injury
on an opponent (at the officials' discretion),
or for a major penalty for a stick infraction
or repeated major penalties.
The offending player is ejected from the game
and must immediately leave the playing surface
(he does not sit in the penalty box); meanwhile,
if an additional minor or major penalty is
assessed, a designated player must serve out
of that segment of the penalty in the box
(similar to the above-mentioned "two-and-ten").
In some rare cases, a player may receive up
to nineteen minutes in penalties for one string
of plays.
This could involve receiving a four-minute
double minor penalty, getting in a fight with
an opposing player who retaliates, and then
receiving a game misconduct after the fight.
In this case, the player is ejected and two
teammates must serve the double-minor and
major penalties.
A "penalty shot" is awarded to a player when
the illegal actions of another player stop
a clear scoring opportunity, most commonly
when the player is on a "breakaway".
A penalty shot allows the obstructed player
to pick up the puck on the centre red-line
and attempt to score on the goalie with no
other players on the ice, to compensate for
the earlier missed scoring opportunity.
A penalty shot is also awarded for a defender
other than the goaltender covering the puck
in the goal crease, a goaltender intentionally
displacing his own goal posts during a breakaway
to avoid a goal, a defender intentionally
displacing his own goal posts when there is
less than two minutes to play in regulation
time or at any point during overtime, or a
player or coach intentionally throwing a stick
or other object at the puck or the puck carrier
and the throwing action disrupts a shot or
pass play.
Officials also stop play for puck movement
violations, such as using one's hands to pass
the puck in the offensive end, but no players
are penalized for these offences.
The sole exceptions are deliberately falling
on or gathering the puck to the body, carrying
the puck in the hand, and shooting the puck
out of play in one's defensive zone (all penalized
two minutes for delay of game).
In the NHL, a unique penalty applies to the
goalies.
The goalies now are forbidden to play the
puck in the "corners" of the rink near their
own net.
This will result in a two-minute penalty against
the goalie's team.
Only in the area in-front of the goal line
and immediately behind the net (marked by
two red lines on either side of the net) the
goalie can play the puck.
An additional rule that has never been a penalty,
but was an infraction in the NHL before recent
rules changes, is the "two-line offside pass".
Prior to the 2005–06 NHL season, play was
stopped when a pass from inside a team's defending
zone crossed the centre line, with a face-off
held in the defending zone of the offending
team.
Now, the centre line is no longer used in
the NHL to determine a two-line pass infraction,
a change that the IIHF had adopted in 1998.
Players are now able to pass to teammates
who are more than the blue and centre ice
red line away.
The NHL has taken steps to speed up the game
of hockey and create a game of finesse, by
retreating from the past when illegal hits,
fights, and "clutching and grabbing" among
players were commonplace.
Rules are now more strictly enforced, resulting
in more penalties, which in turn provides
more protection to the players and facilitates
more goals being scored.
The governing body for United States' amateur
hockey has implemented many new rules to reduce
the number of stick-on-body occurrences, as
well as other detrimental and illegal facets
of the game ("zero tolerance").
In men's hockey, but not in women's, a player
may use his hip or shoulder to hit another
player if the player has the puck or is the
last to have touched it.
This use of the hip and shoulder is called
"body checking".
Not all physical contact is legal—in particular,
hits from behind, hits to the head and most
types of forceful stick-on-body contact are
illegal.
A delayed penalty call occurs when a penalty
offence is committed by the team that does
not have possession of the puck.
In this circumstance the team with possession
of the puck is allowed to complete the play;
that is, play continues until a goal is scored,
a player on the opposing team gains control
of the puck, or the team in possession commits
an infraction or penalty of their own.
Because the team on which the penalty was
called cannot control the puck without stopping
play, it is impossible for them to score a
goal.
In these cases, the team in possession of
the puck can pull the goalie for an extra
attacker without fear of being scored on.
However, it is possible for the controlling
team to mishandle the puck into their own
net.
If a delayed penalty is signalled and the
team in possession scores, the penalty is
still assessed to the offending player, but
not served.
In 2012, this rule was changed by the United
States' National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) for college level hockey.
In college games, the penalty is still enforced
even if the team in possession scores.
=== Officials ===
A typical game of hockey is governed by two
to four officials on the ice, charged with
enforcing the rules of the game.
There are typically two linesmen who are mainly
responsible for calling "offside" and "icing"
violations, breaking up fights, and conducting
faceoffs, and one or two referees, who call
goals and all other penalties.
Linesmen can, however, report to the referee(s)
that a penalty should be assessed against
an offending player in some situations.
The restrictions on this practice vary depending
on the governing rules.
On-ice officials are assisted by off-ice officials
who act as goal judges, time keepers, and
official scorers.
The most widespread system in use today is
the "three-man system," that uses one referee
and two linesmen.
Another less commonly used system is the two
referee and one linesman system.
This system is very close to the regular three-man
system except for a few procedure changes.
With the first being the National Hockey League,
a number of leagues have started to implement
the "four-official system," where an additional
referee is added to aid in the calling of
penalties normally difficult to assess by
one single referee.
The system is now used in every NHL game,
at IIHF World Championships, the Olympics
and in many professional and high-level amateur
leagues in North America and Europe.
Officials are selected by the league they
work for.
Amateur hockey leagues use guidelines established
by national organizing bodies as a basis for
choosing their officiating staffs.
In North America, the national organizing
bodies Hockey Canada and USA Hockey approve
officials according to their experience level
as well as their ability to pass rules knowledge
and skating ability tests.
Hockey Canada has officiating levels I through
VI.
USA Hockey has officiating levels 1 through
4.
=== Equipment ===
Since men's ice hockey is a full contact sport,
body checks are allowed so injuries are a
common occurrence.
Protective equipment is mandatory and is enforced
in all competitive situations.
This includes a helmet (cage worn if certain
age or clear plastic visor can be worn), shoulder
pads, elbow pads, mouth guard, protective
gloves, heavily padded shorts (also known
as hockey pants) or a girdle, athletic cup
(also known as a jock, for males; and jill,
for females), shin pads, skates, and (optionally)
a neck protector.
Goaltenders use different equipment.
With hockey pucks approaching them at speeds
of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) they must wear
equipment with more protection.
Goaltenders wear specialized goalie skates
(these skates are built more for movement
side to side rather than forwards and backwards),
a jock or jill, large leg pads (there are
size restrictions in certain leagues), blocking
glove, catching glove, a chest protector,
a goalie mask, and a large jersey.
Goaltenders' equipment has continually become
larger and larger, leading to fewer goals
in each game and many official rule changes.
Hockey skates are optimized for physical acceleration,
speed and manoeuvrability.
This includes rapid starts, stops, turns,
and changes in skating direction.
In addition, they must be rigid and tough
to protect the skater's feet from contact
with other skaters, sticks, pucks, the boards,
and the ice itself.
Rigidity also improves the overall manoeuvrability
of the skate.
Blade length, thickness (width), and curvature
(rocker/radius (front to back) and radius
of hollow (across the blade width) are quite
different from speed or figure skates.
Hockey players usually adjust these parameters
based on their skill level, position, and
body type.
The blade width of most skates are about 1⁄8
inch (3.2 mm) thick.
The hockey stick consists of a long, relatively
wide, and slightly curved flat blade, attached
to a shaft.
The curve itself has a big impact on its performance.
A deep curve allows for lifting the puck easier
while a shallow curve allows for easier backhand
shots.
The flex of the stick also impacts the performance.
Typically, a less flexible stick is meant
for a stronger player since the player is
looking for the right balanced flex that allows
the stick to flex easily while still having
a strong "whip-back" which sends the puck
flying at high speeds.
It is quite distinct from sticks in other
sports games and most suited to hitting and
controlling the flat puck.
Its unique shape contributed to the early
development of the game.
== Injury ==
Ice hockey is a full contact sport and carries
a high risk of injury.
Players are moving at speeds around approximately
20–30 mph (30–50 km/h) and quite a bit
of the game revolves around the physical contact
between the players.
Skate blades, hockey sticks, shoulders, hips,
and hockey pucks all contribute.
The types of injuries associated with hockey
include: lacerations, concussions, contusions,
ligament tears, broken bones, hyperextensions,
and muscle strains.
Women's ice hockey players can have contact
but are not allowed to body check.
Compared to athletes who play other sports,
ice hockey players are at higher risk of overuse
injuries and injuries caused by early sports
specialization by teenagers.
=== Head injuries ===
According to the Hughston Health Alert, "Lacerations
to the head, scalp, and face are the most
frequent types of injury [in hockey]."
Even a shallow cut to the head results in
a loss of a large amount of blood.
Not only are lacerations common, "it is estimated
that direct trauma accounts for 80% of all
[hockey] injuries.
Most of these injuries are caused by player
contact, falls and contact with a puck, high
stick and occasionally, a skate blade."
One of the causes of head injury is checking
from behind.
Due to the danger of delivering a check from
behind, many leagues, including the NHL have
made this a major and game misconduct penalty
(called "boarding").
Another type of check that accounts for many
of the player-to-player contact concussions
is a check to the head resulting in a misconduct
penalty (called "head contact").
A check to the head can be defined as delivering
a hit while the receiving player's head is
down and their waist is bent and the aggressor
is targeting the opponent player's head.
The most dangerous result of a head injury
in hockey can be classified as a concussion.
Most concussions occur during player-to-player
contact rather than when a player is checked
into the boards.
Checks to the head have accounted for nearly
50% of concussions that players in the National
Hockey League have suffered.
Concussions that players suffer may go unreported
because there is no obvious physical signs
if a player is not knocked unconscious.
This can prove to be dangerous if a player
decides to return to play without receiving
proper medical attention.
Studies show that, ice hockey causes 44.3%
of all traumatic brain injuries among Canadian
children.
In severe cases, the traumatic brain injuries
are capable of resulting in death.
Occurrences of death from these injuries are
rare, but occur all too much in a variety
of sports.
== Tactics ==
=== Checking ===
An important defensive tactic is checking—attempting
to take the puck from an opponent or to remove
the opponent from play.
Stick checking, sweep checking, and poke checking
are legal uses of the stick to obtain possession
of the puck.
The neutral zone trap is designed to isolate
the puck carrier in the neutral zone preventing
him from entering the offensive zone.
Body checking is using one's shoulder or hip
to strike an opponent who has the puck or
who is the last to have touched it (the last
person to have touched the puck is still legally
"in possession" of it, although a penalty
is generally called if he is checked more
than two seconds after his last touch).
Often the term checking is used to refer to
body checking, with its true definition generally
only propagated among fans of the game.
=== Offensive tactics ===
Offensive tactics include improving a team's
position on the ice by advancing the puck
out of one's zone towards the opponent's zone,
progressively by gaining lines, first your
own blue line, then the red line and finally
the opponent's blue line.
NHL rules instated for the 2006 season redefined
the offside rule to make the two-line pass
legal; a player may pass the puck from behind
his own blue line, past both that blue line
and the centre red line, to a player on the
near side of the opponents' blue line.
Offensive tactics are designed ultimately
to score a goal by taking a shot.
When a player purposely directs the puck towards
the opponent's goal, he or she is said to
"shoot" the puck.
A deflection is a shot that redirects a shot
or a pass towards the goal from another player,
by allowing the puck to strike the stick and
carom towards the goal.
A one-timer is a shot struck directly off
a pass, without receiving the pass and shooting
in two separate actions.
Headmanning the puck, also known as breaking
out, is the tactic of rapidly passing to the
player farthest down the ice.
Loafing, also known as cherry-picking, is
when a player, usually a forward, skates behind
an attacking team, instead of playing defence,
in an attempt to create an easy scoring chance.
A team that is losing by one or two goals
in the last few minutes of play will often
elect to pull the goalie; that is, remove
the goaltender and replace him or her with
an extra attacker on the ice in the hope of
gaining enough advantage to score a goal.
However, it is an act of desperation, as it
sometimes leads to the opposing team extending
their lead by scoring a goal in the empty
net.
One of the most important strategies for a
team is their forecheck.
Forechecking is the act of attacking the opposition
in their defensive zone.
Forechecking is an important part of the dump
and chase strategy (i.e. shooting the puck
into the offensive zone and then chasing after
it).
Each team will use their own unique system
but the main ones are: 2–1–2, 1–2–2,
and 1–4.
The 2–1–2 is the most basic forecheck
system where two forwards will go in deep
and pressure the opposition's defencemen,
the third forward stays high and the two defencemen
stay at the blueline.
The 1–2–2 is a bit more conservative system
where one forward pressures the puck carrier
and the other two forwards cover the oppositions'
wingers, with the two defencemen staying at
the blueline.
The 1–4 is the most defensive forecheck
system, referred to as the neutral zone trap,
where one forward will apply pressure to the
puck carrier around the oppositions' blueline
and the other 4 players stand basically in
a line by their blueline in hopes the opposition
will skate into one of them.
Another strategy is the left wing lock, which
has two forwards pressure the puck and the
left wing and the two defencemen stay at the
blueline.
There are many other little tactics used in
the game of hockey.
Cycling moves the puck along the boards in
the offensive zone to create a scoring chance
by making defenders tired or moving them out
of position.
Pinching is when a defenceman pressures the
opposition's winger in the offensive zone
when they are breaking out, attempting to
stop their attack and keep the puck in the
offensive zone.
A saucer pass is a pass used when an opposition's
stick or body is in the passing lane.
It is the act of raising the puck over the
obstruction and having it land on a teammate's
stick.
A deke, short for "decoy," is a feint with
the body or stick to fool a defender or the
goalie.
Many modern players, such as Pavel Datsyuk,
Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane, have picked
up the skill of "dangling," which is fancier
deking and requires more stick handling skills.
=== Fights ===
Although fighting is officially prohibited
in the rules, it is not an uncommon occurrence
at the professional level, and its prevalence
has been both a target of criticism and a
considerable draw for the sport.
At the professional level in North America
fights are unofficially condoned.
Enforcers and other players fight to demoralize
the opposing players while exciting their
own, as well as settling personal scores.
A fight will also break out if one of the
team's skilled players gets hit hard or someone
gets hit by what the team perceives as a dirty
hit.
The amateur game penalizes fisticuffs more
harshly, as a player who receives a fighting
major is also assessed at least a 10-minute
misconduct penalty (NCAA and some Junior leagues)
or a game misconduct penalty and suspension
(high school and younger, as well as some
casual adult leagues).
Crowds seem to like fighting in ice hockey
and cheer when fighting erupts.
== Women's ice hockey ==
Ice hockey is one of the fastest growing women's
sports in the world, with the number of participants
increasing by 400 percent from 1995 to 2005.
In 2011, Canada had 85,827 women players,
United States had 65,609, Finland 4,760, Sweden
3,075 and Switzerland 1,172.
While there are not as many organized leagues
for women as there are for men, there exist
leagues of all levels, including the Canadian
Women's Hockey League (CWHL), Western Women's
Hockey League, National Women's Hockey League
(NWHL), Mid-Atlantic Women's Hockey League,
and various European leagues; as well as university
teams, national and Olympic teams, and recreational
teams.
The IIHF holds IIHF World Women's Championships
tournaments in several divisions; championships
are held annually, except that the top flight
does not play in Olympic years.
The chief difference between women's and men's
ice hockey is that body checking is prohibited
in women's hockey.
After the 1990 Women's World Championship,
body checking was eliminated in women's hockey.
In current IIHF women's competition, body
checking is either a minor or major penalty,
decided at the referee's discretion.
In addition, players in women's competition
are required to wear protective full-face
masks.
In Canada, to some extent ringette has served
as the female counterpart to ice hockey, in
the sense that traditionally, boys have played
hockey while girls have played ringette.
=== History ===
Women are known to have played the game in
the 19th century.
Several games were recorded in the 1890s in
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
The women of Lord Stanley's family were known
to participate in the game of ice hockey on
the outdoor ice rink at Rideau Hall, the residence
of Canada's Governor-General.
The game developed at first without an organizing
body.
A tournament in 1902 between Montreal and
Trois-Rivieres was billed as the first championship
tournament.
Several tournaments, such as at the Banff
Winter Carnival, were held in the early 20th
century and numerous women's teams such as
the Seattle Vamps and Vancouver Amazons existed.
Organizations started to develop in the 1920s,
such as the Ladies Ontario Hockey Association,
and later, the Dominion Women's Amateur Hockey
Association.
Starting in the 1960s, the game spread to
universities.
Today, the sport is played from youth through
adult leagues, and in the universities of
North America and internationally.
There are two major women's hockey leagues,
the National Women's Hockey League with teams
in the Northeastern United States which is
a professional league and the Canadian Women's
Hockey League with teams in Canada and the
United States, which is semi-professional
and is developing toward becoming a fully
professional league.
The first women's world championship tournament,
albeit unofficial, was held in 1987 in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
This was followed by the first IIHF World
Championship in 1990 in Ottawa.
Women's ice hockey was added as a medal sport
at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
The United States won the gold, Canada won
the silver and Finland won the bronze medal.
The United States won the gold medal again
in 2018 at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang,
South Korea.The United States Hockey League
(USHL) welcomed the first female professional
ice hockey player in 1969–70, when the Marquette
Iron Rangers signed Karen Koch.
One woman, Manon Rhéaume, has played in an
NHL pre-season game as a goaltender for the
Tampa Bay Lightning against the St. Louis
Blues.
In 2003, Hayley Wickenheiser played with the
Kirkkonummi Salamat in the Finnish men's Suomi-sarja
league.
Several women have competed in North American
minor leagues, including Rhéaume, goaltenders
Kelly Dyer and Erin Whitten and defenceman
Angela Ruggiero.
With interest in women's ice hockey growing,
between 2007 and 2010 the number of registered
female players worldwide grew from 153,665
to 170,872.
Women's hockey is on the rise in almost every
part of the world and there are teams in North
America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and
Latin America.
=== Women's Hockey Leagues ===
There are currently two North American based
professional women's hockey leagues, the Canadian
Women's Hockey League (CWHL) and the National
Women's Hockey League (NWHL).
The CWHL is based in Canada while the NWHL
is based in the United States.
==== CWHL ====
The CWHL was founded in 2007 and originally
consisted of seven teams.
As of 2018, there are six teams, although
the teams themselves have changed.
Currently, the league consists of Worcester
Blades, Calgary Inferno, Les Canadiennes de
Montreal, Markham Thunder, Shenzhen KRS Vanke
Rays, and Toronto Furies.
While the CWHL is based in Canada, it does
have two teams that play outside Canada.
The Worcester Blades are based in the United
States and Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays are based
in China.
==== NWHL ====
The NWHL was founded in 2015 and was the first
North American women's league to pay its players.
The league consists of five teams, though
it had four teams for the league's first three
seasons.
On May 15, 2018, the NWHL announced that the
Minnesota Whitecaps would be joining the NWHL
starting in the 2018–19 season.
The current five teams in the league are the
Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut
Whale, Metropolitan Riveters, and Minnesota
Whitecaps.
== Leagues and championships ==
=== Most popular leagues ===
=== North America ===
==== National Hockey League ====
The NHL is by far the best attended and most
popular ice hockey league in the world.
The league's history began after Canada's
National Hockey Association decided to disband
in 1917; the result was the creation of the
National Hockey League.
The league expanded to the United States beginning
in 1924.
In 1967, the NHL doubled in size to 12 teams,
undertaking one of the greatest expansions
in professional sports history.
A few years later, in 1972, a new 12 team
league, the World Hockey Association (WHA)
was formed and due to its ensuing rivalry
with the NHL, it caused an escalation in players
salaries.
As of 1979, the NHL had grown to 17 teams
and merged with the WHA.
This created a 21 team league.
By 2017, the NHL had expanded to 31 teams,
and after a realignment in 2013, these teams
were divided into two conferences and four
divisions.
==== Minor leagues ====
The American Hockey League (AHL), sometimes
referred to as "The A," is the primary developmental
professional league for players aspiring to
enter the NHL.
It comprises 30 teams from the United States
and Canada, and will expand to 31 teams for
the 2018–19 season.
It is run as a "farm league" to the NHL, with
the vast majority of AHL players under contract
to an NHL team.
The ECHL (called the East Coast Hockey League
before the 2003–04 season) is a mid-level
minor league in the United States with a few
players under contract to NHL or AHL teams.
The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL)
is a developmental minor league in the United
States with no NHL affiliations.
Most undrafted players get their start in
the ECHL or SPHL.
==== University competitions ====
In the United States especially, college hockey
is popular and the best university teams compete
in the annual NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship.
The American Collegiate Hockey Association
is composed of college teams at the club level.
==== Junior leagues ====
In Canada, the Canadian Hockey League is an
umbrella organization comprising three major
junior leagues: the Ontario Hockey League,
the Western Hockey League, and the Quebec
Major Junior Hockey League.
It attracts players from Canada, the United
States and Europe.
In the United States, the United States Hockey
League (USHL) is the highest junior league.
Players in this league are strictly amateur,
so that they may play college hockey if they
wish.
=== Eurasia ===
==== Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) ====
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is the
largest and most popular ice hockey league
in Eurasia.
The league is the direct successor to the
Russian Super League, which in turn was the
successor to the Soviet League, the history
of which dates back to the Soviet adoption
of ice hockey in the 1940s.
The KHL was launched in 2008 with clubs predominantly
from Russia, but featuring teams from other
post-Soviet states.
The league expanded beyond the former Soviet
countries beginning in the 2011–12 season,
with clubs in Croatia and Slovakia.
The number of teams has since increased to
28 from eight different countries.
==== Minor leagues ====
The second division of hockey in Eurasia is
the Supreme Hockey League (VHL).
This league features 24 teams from Russia
and 2 from Kazakhstan.
This league is currently being converted to
a farm league for the KHL, similarly to the
AHL's function in relation to the NHL.
The third division is the Russian Hockey League,
which features only teams from Russia.
The Asia League, an international ice hockey
league featuring clubs from China, Japan,
South Korea, and the Russian Far East, is
the successor to the Japan Ice Hockey League.
==== Junior leagues ====
The highest junior league in Eurasia is the
Junior Hockey League (MHL).
It features 32 teams from post-Soviet states,
predominantly Russia.
The second tier to this league is the Junior
Hockey League Championships (MHL-B).
=== Europe ===
Several countries in Europe have their own
top professional senior leagues.
Many future KHL and NHL players start or end
their professional careers in these leagues.
The National League A in Switzerland, Swedish
Hockey League in Sweden, Liiga in Finland,
and Czech Extraliga in the Czech Republic
are all very popular in their respective countries.
==== Champions Hockey League ====
Beginning in the 2014–15 season, the Champions
Hockey League was launched, a league consisting
of first-tier teams from several European
countries, running parallel to the teams'
domestic leagues.
The competition is meant to serve as a Europe-wide
ice hockey club championship.
The competition is a direct successor to the
European Trophy and is related to the 2008–09
tournament of the same name.
==== Other ====
There are also several annual tournaments
for clubs, held outside of league play.
Pre-season tournaments include the European
Trophy, Tampere Cup and the Pajulahti Cup.
One of the oldest international ice hockey
competition for clubs is the Spengler Cup,
held every year in Davos, Switzerland, between
Christmas and New Year's Day.
It was first awarded in 1923 to the Oxford
University Ice Hockey Club.
The Memorial Cup, a competition for junior-level
(age 20 and under) clubs is held annually
from a pool of junior championship teams in
Canada and the United States.
International club competitions organized
by the IIHF include the Continental Cup, the
Victoria Cup and the European Women's Champions
Cup.
The World Junior Club Cup is an annual tournament
of junior ice hockey clubs representing each
of the top junior leagues.
=== National team competitions ===
Ice hockey has been played at the Winter Olympics
since 1924 (and was played at the summer games
in 1920).
Hockey is Canada's national winter sport,
and Canadians are extremely passionate about
the game.
The nation has traditionally done very well
at the Olympic games, winning 6 of the first
7 gold medals.
However, by 1956 its amateur club teams and
national teams could not compete with the
teams of government-supported players from
the Soviet Union.
The USSR won all but two gold medals from
1956 to 1988.
The United States won their first gold medal
in 1960.
On the way to winning the gold medal at the
1980 Lake Placid Olympics amateur US college
players defeated the heavily favoured Soviet
squad—an event known as the "Miracle on
Ice" in the United States.
Restrictions on professional players were
fully dropped at the 1988 games in Calgary.
NHL agreed to participate ten years later.
1998 Games saw the full participation of players
from the NHL, which suspended operations during
the Games and has done so in subsequent Games.
The 2010 games in Vancouver were the first
played in an NHL city since the inclusion
of NHL players.
The 2010 games were the first played on NHL-sized
ice rinks, which are narrower than the IIHF
standard.
National teams representing the member federations
of the IIHF compete annually in the IIHF Ice
Hockey World Championships.
Teams are selected from the available players
by the individual federations, without restriction
on amateur or professional status.
Since it is held in the spring, the tournament
coincides with the annual NHL Stanley Cup
playoffs and many of the top players are hence
not available to participate in the tournament.
Many of the NHL players who do play in the
IIHF tournament come from teams eliminated
before the playoffs or in the first round,
and federations often hold open spots until
the tournament to allow for players to join
the tournament after their club team is eliminated.
For many years, the tournament was an amateur-only
tournament, but this restriction was removed,
beginning in 1977.
The 1972 Summit Series and 1974 Summit Series,
two series pitting the best Canadian and Soviet
players without IIHF restrictions were major
successes, and established a rivalry between
Canada and the USSR.
In the spirit of best-versus-best without
restrictions on amateur or professional status,
the series were followed by five Canada Cup
tournaments, played in North America.
Two NHL versus USSR series were also held:
the 1979 Challenge Cup and Rendez-vous '87.
The Canada Cup tournament later became the
World Cup of Hockey, played in 1996, 2004
and 2016.
The United States won in 1996 and Canada won
in 2004 and 2016.
Since the initial women's world championships
in 1990, there have been fifteen tournaments.
Women's hockey has been played at the Olympics
since 1998.
The 2006 Winter Olympic final between Canada
and Sweden marked the only time the women's
world championship or Olympic final did not
involve both Canada and the United States.
Other ice hockey tournaments featuring national
teams include the World U20 Championship,
the World U18 Championships, the World U-17
Hockey Challenge, the World Junior A Challenge,
the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, the World
Women's U18 Championships and the 4 Nations
Cup.
The annual Euro Hockey Tour, an unofficial
European championship between the national
men's teams of the Czech Republic, Finland,
Russia and Sweden have been played since 1996–97.
=== Miscellaneous ===
==== Oceania ====
The Australian Ice Hockey League and New Zealand
Ice Hockey League are represented by nine
and five teams respectively.
As of 2012, the two top teams of the previous
season from each league compete in the Trans-Tasman
Champions League.
==== Africa ====
Ice hockey in Africa is a small but growing
sport; while no African ice hockey playing
nation has a domestic league, there are several
regional leagues in South Africa.
==== Pond hockey ====
Pond hockey is a form of ice hockey played
generally as pick-up hockey on lakes, ponds
and artificial outdoor rinks during the winter.
Pond hockey is commonly referred to in hockey
circles as shinny.
Its rules differ from traditional hockey because
there is no hitting and very little shooting,
placing a greater emphasis on skating, puckhandling
and passing abilities.
Since 2002, the World Pond Hockey Championship
has been played on Roulston Lake in Plaster
Rock, New Brunswick, Canada.
Since 2006, the US Pond Hockey Championships
have been played in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
and the Canadian National Pond Hockey Championships
have been played in Huntsville, Ontario.
== In popular culture ==
Ice hockey is the official winter sport of
Canada.
Ice hockey, partially because of its popularity
as a major professional sport, has been a
source of inspiration for numerous films,
television episodes and songs in North American
popular culture.
== Attendance records ==
The record for a Stanley Cup playoff game
is 28,183, set on April 23, 1996, at the Thunderdome
during a Tampa Bay Lightning – Philadelphia
Flyers game.A record was set on December 11,
2010, when the University of Michigan's men's
ice hockey team faced cross-state rival Michigan
State in an event billed as "The Big Chill
at the Big House".
The game was played at Michigan's (American)
football venue, Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor,
with a capacity of 109,901 as of the 2010
football season.
When UM stopped sales to the public on May
6, 2010, with plans to reserve remaining tickets
for students, over 100,000 tickets had been
sold for the event.
Ultimately, a crowd announced by UM as 113,411,
the largest in the stadium's history (including
football), saw the homestanding Wolverines
win 5–0.
Guinness World Records, using a count of ticketed
fans who actually entered the stadium instead
of UM's figure of tickets sold, announced
a final figure of 104,173.The record was approached
but not broken at the 2014 NHL Winter Classic,
which also held at Michigan Stadium, with
the Detroit Red Wings as the home team and
the Toronto Maple Leafs as the opposing team
with an announced crowd of 105,491.
== Number of registered players by country
==
Number of registered hockey players, including
male, female and junior, provided by the respective
countries' federations.
Note that this list only includes the 42 of
76 IIHF member countries with more than 1,000
registered players as of October 2018.
== See also ==
Glossary of ice hockey
List of ice hockey countries
Ice hockey at the Olympic Games
Minor ice hockey
Hockey
== References ==
=== Notes ===
=== Works cited ===
Dryden, Ken (2005).
The Game: 20th Anniversary Edition.
Toronto: Wiley Canada.
ISBN 978-0-470-83584-5.
Farrell, Arthur (1899).
Hockey: Canada's Royal Winter Game (PDF).
Library and Archives Canada.
Selke, Frank (1962).
Behind The Cheering.
Toronto, Ontario: McClelland and Stewart Ltd.
Vaughan, Garth (1996).
The puck starts here : the origin of Canada's
great winter game, ice hockey.
Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions.
ISBN 0864922124.
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
"Mandatory Equipment"
SIHR – The Origins of Hockey
History of ice hockey
Map of College & Pro Ice Hockey Teams in Canada
and USA
