Ice hockey games of ice

One of the most popular international sports, ice hockey is a team game. It is played on ice with six players on skates & a puck, or rubber disk. It is a low-scoring game in which the team that scores the most goals wins. The game is also an Olympic sport.The game is played on a rectangular rink with rounded corners. The rink is 200 feet long & 85 feet wide. It is surrounded by wooden walls. These extend about 3 or 4 feet above the surface of the ice. The rink is divided into three zones. There is a blue line 60 feet from each goal line. Between the two blue lines is the center line, or red line. The area between the blue lines is the neutral zone. The goal cage is 4 feet high & 6 feet wide. The cage is covered on the sides & back by a white net into which the puck is shot.The primary tool of the hockey player is the hockey stick. The stick used to be made only of wood, but now it is made from a variety of materials. The puck is 3 inches in diameter & 1 inch thick. It weighs 5 1/2 to 6 ounces. It is made of black synthetic rubber.All players are required to wear helmets. Forwards & defense players wear the same type of skates, but goaltenders, or goalies, have flatter blades because they need more balance & are stationary for longer periods. The shoes of the goalie's skates are fitted with rubber protection for the toes. Players wear padding under their uniforms to protect their legs, shoulders, & arms. Goalies wear a special mask over their face. There is also a plastic guard to protect their throat column. They wear extra pads & gloves over their uniform to protect various parts of their body. Fully dressed, goaltenders carry up to 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of equipment.Three officials, a referee, & two linesmen, run the game. The referee makes the final decision as to whether a goal has been scored. The game is divided into three periods of 20 minutes each. There is a 15-minute interval between periods. If the game ends in a tie, an overtime period is played to serve as a tiebreaker. There is generally no overtime period in international hockey. However, since 1994 in the Olympics, the game has had a 10-minute sudden-death period followed by a penalty shootout.The team is made up of six players. There is a goaltender, two defense players, & three forwards. Goalies remain in their area. The players h&le the puck only with their sticks. The forwards have to do a major part of the scoring. The game starts with a face-off. A face-off means that the official drops the puck between two opposing players.The team in possession of the puck has to take it past the other team & into the opponents' net. Each goal is counted as one point. Substitutions are permitted & players are frequently substituted while the game is in play. In fact, players rarely stay on the ice for more than two minutes at a time.A player is penalized for violating the rules of the game. A player who commits violations such as holding, tripping, charging, elbowing, hooking, slashing, & interference is charged with a minor penalty. The player then has to spend two minutes in the penalty box & the team has to play one player short. Penalties made by the goalie are served by a teammate.A major penalty for violent play results in the loss of a player for five minutes or for the remainder of the game. These are given for fighting with or injuring an opponent. A player can also be punished for misconduct. When players are benched for misconduct, their team does not have to play shorth&ed; it can bring in a substitute player.A simple form of ice hockey was introduced in Canada by British troops in the mid-19th century. However, the first recorded public indoor ice hockey game took place in Montreal in 1875 between two teams of McGill University students. The rules were largely borrowed from field hockey. The first organized team, the McGill University Hockey Club, was formed in 1877. By the late 1800s, ice hockey competed with lacrosse as the most popular game in Canada.The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) was formed in Europe in 1908 & the National Hockey League (NHL) was created in 1917 in North America. The NHL became the world's foremost professional hockey league. Initially, the league was composed of six teams. It exp&ed in 1967 to include 12 teams, & by 1999, 30 teams in the United States & Canada played in the NHL. The regular season consists of 82 games. These games determine which 16 teams will qualify for the play-offs. The play-off winner is awarded the Stanley Cup.Canada dominated international competition until the emergence of the Soviet team in the early 1960s. The Soviets continued to be the most powerful team in international hockey until the 1990s & the dissolution of the Soviet Union.In 1995 an agreement among the NHL, the NHL Players' Association, & IIHF allowed professional athletes to compete at the Olympics & World Cup championships. Women's ice hockey was added to the winter Olympic Games at Nagano, Japan in 1998.