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Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in an indoor or outdoor rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent's net to score goals. The sport is known to be fast-paced and physical, with teams usually fielding six players at a time: one goaltender to stop the puck from going into their own net, two defensemen, and three forwards who skate the span of the ice trying to control the puck and score goals against the opposing team.
The National Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league in North America, currently comprising 31 teams: 24 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. 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 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, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament. 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 Swedish Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, and while Swedish ice hockey champions have been crowned through various formats since 1922, the title and the Le Mat Trophy have been awarded to the winner of the SHL playoffs since the league's inaugural 1975–76 season.
Hockey Canada, which merged with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1994, is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority of organized ice hockey in Canada. There are some notable exceptions, such as the Canadian Hockey League, U Sports, and Canada's professional hockey clubs; the former two are partnered with Hockey Canada but are not member organizations. Hockey Canada is based in Calgary, with a secondary office in Ottawa and regional centres in Toronto, Winnipeg and Montreal.
The Czech men's national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of the Czech Republic. It is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. It is governed by the Czech Ice Hockey Association. The Czech Republic has 72,075 players officially enrolled in organized hockey.
The Finnish women's national ice hockey team represents Finland at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Women's Championships, the Olympic Games, the Four Nations Cup, and other international-level women's ice hockey competitions. The women's national team is overseen by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Finland's national women's program is ranked third in the world by the IIHF and has 5,858 active players as of 2019.
The United States women's national ice hockey team is controlled by USA Hockey. The U.S. has been one of the most successful women's ice hockey teams in international play, having won gold or silver in every major tournament with the exception of the 2006 Winter Olympics, where they captured bronze. As of 2018, the U.S. has 75,832 female players.
Ice Hockey UK (IHUK) is the national governing body of the sport of ice hockey in the United Kingdom. Affiliated to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), IHUK is the internationally recognised umbrella body in the United Kingdom. IHUK was created to replace the British Ice Hockey Association (BIHA). The organisation is responsible to the IIHF for the good order of the sport in the UK. The IHUK is charged with ensuring that all overseas players are properly cleared to play and that the rules and by-laws of the IIHF are upheld. Ice Hockey UK runs the national team, Great Britain men's national ice hockey team also known as Team GB. Ice Hockey UK founded a youth development league in 2014, with the aim to grow future national team players.
Hammarby IF Ishockeyförening was a Stockholm-based professional ice hockey team that for most of its history played in Hovet. Hammarby IF started playing hockey in 1921, playing their first matches using a group of curious bandy players. Hammarby were giants in the early history of Swedish hockey, playing in Sweden's top league from the birth of Swedish organized hockey in 1922 until 1957. During that period, they were crowned Swedish champions eight times in 13 attempts. The rest of their history was more modest, having qualified for play in Elitserien only twice, however during their entire existence, they never played in a lower league than the second tier. As of 2013, five seasons after the club's bankruptcy, Hammarby is 17th in the Marathon standings for the highest division of Swedish ice hockey.
College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America.
The Thailand national ice hockey team is the national men's ice hockey team of Thailand. The team is controlled by the Ice Hockey Association of Thailand and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Thailand is currently ranked at fifty-first in the IIHF World Rankings and have been entered in the World Championship tournaments since 2019 but have not yet participated at any Olympic Games. They have played in the Challenge Cup of Asia, a regional tournament for lower-tier hockey nations in Asia.
The Ireland women's national ice hockey team is the women's national ice hockey team of the Republic of Ireland. The team is controlled by the Irish Ice Hockey Association, a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Until the Dundalk Ice Dome reopens they do not meet minimum IIHF standards for participation.
Ice hockey in Sweden has a history going back to at least 1912 and is one of the country's most popular sports. The sport was first organized in the country by the Swedish Football Association (SvFF), which was a member of the IIHF in 1912. The ice hockey department of the SvFF eventually split off to become the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) which today is still responsible for organizing Sweden's domestic leagues and its participation in tournaments internationally. The highest tier of men's ice hockey in Sweden, the SHL, brought in 1,974,388 spectators in the 2013–14 season, the highest overall attendance in Swedish sports. The SHL's average of 5,983 spectators per match is bested only by Allsvenskan, the country's top flight of association football.
The 2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was the 39th edition of Ice Hockey World Junior Championship, played from December 26, 2014 to January 5, 2015. It was co-hosted by Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and organized by Hockey Canada, Hockey Quebec, the Ontario Hockey Federation, the Montreal Canadiens, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment and Evenko. Games were split between Air Canada Centre in Toronto and Bell Centre in Montreal, with Montreal hosting Group A matches and two quarter finals, and Toronto hosting Group B, along with the relegation games, two quarter finals, along with the semi-finals, bronze medal, and gold medal games.
Ice hockey is a sport that is slowly gaining popularity in India. Ice hockey is played mostly in places like Ladakh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir in the north of India, where cold weather occurs and the game can be played outdoors. Ice hockey enthusiasts from other places in the country, as well as expatriates from abroad, head to places like Ladakh for the experience of playing in some of the highest rinks in the world. There are a few artificial indoor ice skating rinks in the rest of the country, such as the Doon Ice Rink in Dehradun, which can accommodate ice hockey with an international-sized rink.
The 2017 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was the 41st edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. The main tournament was co-hosted by the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec and the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. This was the twelfth championship that Canada had hosted. Montreal and Toronto also jointly hosted the 2015 edition. The tournament consisted of 30 games between 10 nations.
Mackenzie Blackwood is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). Blackwood was the top-rated North American goaltender ranked in the NHL Central Scouting Bureau's final rankings for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. He was selected by the Devils in the second round, 42nd overall, in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.
References
- ↑ Surgent, Scott (2013). The Complete World Hockey Association, 9e. Tempe, Arizona. p. 321. ISBN 978-1-490967400.
- 1 2 3 "ECAC All-Teams". College Hockey Historical Archives. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
- 1 2 "Men's Ice Hockey Award Winners" (PDF). NCAA.org. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
