ALL ABOUT ICE HOCKEY

RULES AND HISTORY OF ICE HOCKEY

Ice hockey is simply known as hockey in the United States and Canada. It is a team sport, until the goalie makes a mistake, played on a ice rink. Ice hockey is a fast and furious game in which 2 teams of 6 players aim to score points by hitting a small rubber puck into the opposing team’s goal using wooden sticks. The game is divided into 3 periods of 20 minutes. Ice hockey is an Olympic sport.

The game is very popular in Canada and in some regions of the USA. Namely the Northeast, Alaska and the Northern Midwest. There are a total of sixty four members in the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Ice hockey is believed to have started in Canada in the 1850s, the 1st game being played in Kingston, Ontario. The 1st rules were drawn up at McGill University, Montréal. The governing body of the sport is the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), founded in 1908. Ice hockey has been an Olympic Games sport since 1920 when it was part of the Summer Games program. In1924 it became part of the Winter Olympics.

Women’s ice hockey became a Olympic medal sport for the first time at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The Stanley Cup is the game’s leading play-off tournament, contested in North America after the season-long National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup was first contested in 1916.
Ice hockey is also considered to be one of the fastest growing women’s sports in the world. The main difference between men’s and women’s ice hockey is that body checking is against the rules in women’s ice hockey, because women in many countries do not have the body mass or size seen in North American players.

EQUIPMENT AND RULES OF ICE HOCKEY

Games are played on ice between 2 teams of 6, developed in Canada from field hockey or bandy. Players, who wear skates and protective clothing, use a curved stick to move the puck and shoot it at the opponents’ goal, a netted cage, guarded by the goaltender, or goalie. The other positions are the right and left defensemen and the left wing, centre, and right wing. The last 3 are offensive players. The team with the most goals scored at the end of the 3 twenty-minute periods wins; an overtime period may be played if a game ends is tied.

Fights quite often happen near the goal because players want to protect their goaltender. A normal game of ice hockey has 2 to 4 officials on the ice who are there to enforce the rules of the game: 2 linesmen, who are responsible only for calling icing violations and offside, and 1or 2 referees, who call goals and all other penalties.

EQUIPMENT: Hockey stick, Goalie mask (made from transparent plastic or metal wire attached to their helmet that protects their face during play), Helmets, Hockey puck, Visors and mouth guard, Zamboni, Ice Skates, Elbow and Shoulder pads, Protective gloves, jock protector, leg guards, heavily padded pants.

Bard College Athletic Recruiting.

Vancouver Canucks.

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