Sarah O'Connor (born 20 November 1984) is an Australian field hockey player. [1]
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The franchise is one of the Original Six of the league. Founded in 1926, the team was known as the Detroit Cougars until 1930. For the next two seasons, the team was named the Detroit Falcons, before changing their name to the Red Wings in 1932.
Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Two opposing teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a vulcanized rubber hockey puck into the other team's net. Each goal is worth one point. The team with the highest score after an hour of playing time is declared the winner; ties are broken in overtime or a shootout. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, including a goaltender. It is a full contact game and one of the more physically demanding team sports.
The National Hockey League (NHL); French: Ligue nationale de hockey (LNH), is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams – 25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered to be the top-ranked professional ice hockey league in the world, with players from 17 countries as of the 2023–24 season. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) views the Stanley Cup as one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The NHL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.
Wayne Douglas Gretzky is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999, retiring at the age of 38. Nicknamed "the Great One", he has been called the greatest ice hockey player ever by the NHL based on extensive surveys of hockey writers, ex-players, general managers and coaches. Gretzky is the leading career goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history, and has more career assists than any other player has total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in 15 professional seasons, 13 of them consecutively. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.
The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, and winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the two main professional ice hockey organizations, reached an agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. It was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which opened in 2016. Kris Knoblauch is the head coach as of November 12, 2023, and Stan Bowman was named general manager on July 24, 2024. The Oilers are one of two NHL franchises based in Alberta, the other being the Calgary Flames. Their proximity has led to a fierce rivalry known as the "Battle of Alberta".
The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the European Championships, the precursor to the World Championships, were first held in 1910. The tournament held at the 1920 Summer Olympics is recognized as the first Ice Hockey World Championship. From 1920 to 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the World Championship for that year.
The ECHL is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The league serves as a farm system to the AHL and the National Hockey League (NHL).
The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.
College Hockey America (CHA) was a college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participated in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The conference's final membership featured six women's teams, with three in Pennsylvania; two in New York, and one in Missouri.
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which operated the league from 2000 to 2013, at which point it was purchased by the individual franchise owners. As of the end of its final season in 2014, three of the 30 National Hockey League teams had affiliations with the CHL: the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Kontinental Hockey League is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs.
The International Ice Hockey Federation is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries.
The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs men's ice hockey team is an NCAA Division I college ice hockey program that represents the University of Minnesota Duluth. The Bulldogs are a member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). The team plays home games at the 6,800-seat AMSOIL Arena at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
The Vermont Catamounts are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs of the University of Vermont, based in Burlington, Vermont, United States. The school sponsors 18 athletic programs, most of which compete in the NCAA Division I America East Conference (AEC), of which the school has been a member since 1979. The men's and women's ice hockey programs compete in Hockey East. The men's and women's alpine and nordic skiing teams compete in the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA). The school's athletic director is Jeff Schulman.
The Kansas City Mavericks are an ice hockey team in the ECHL. Founded in 2009 as the Missouri Mavericks of the CHL, the team plays in Independence, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, at the Cable Dahmer Arena.
Charlotte Harrison is a New Zealand field hockey player. She has competed for the New Zealand women's national field hockey team, including for the team at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics and at the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games, and as a reserve for the team at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Samantha Child is a New Zealand field hockey player. She has competed for the New Zealand women's national field hockey team, including for the team at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Anita McLaren is a New Zealand field hockey player. She competed for the New Zealand women's national field hockey team from 2009 to 2018, including for the team at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms are a professional ice hockey team based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The team competes in the American Hockey League (AHL) and serves as the primary development team for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League.