Hockey

The word hockey comes from the old French word “hocquet,” meaning “stick.” The British most likely brought the idea of using a stick to propel a snowball along the ice of a pond or lake to North America in the 1600 or 1700s. In 1879, college students at McGill University in Montreal organized competitions and developed the first known set of hockey rules.

While men's ice hockey made its Olympic debut at the 1920 Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp, it was moved to the Winter Games since the inaugural 1924 Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix. Women’s ice hockey debuted at the Nagano 1998 Olympic Winter Games.

A team must not have more than six players on the ice while play is in progress. The object is for one team to get the puck past the other team’s goaltender and into the net, similar to soccer.

A regular game consists of three 20-minute periods, with a 15-minute intermission after the first and second periods. If a tie occurs in a game in which a winner must be determined, a sudden-victory overtime period is played. During the gold medal game, a 20-minute, sudden-victory period is played. In the event of a tie after a sudden-victory period, a game-winning shoot-out determines the winner.

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games ice hockey tournaments are played on a North American ice surface which is twelve feet narrower than international rinks.


taken from:
http://www.vancouver2010.com
http://www.wikipedia.com

You may have heard of the Miracle on Ice, or maybe you've seen the film. The "Miracle on Ice" was a medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York. The United States team, made up of amateur and collegiate players, defeated the Soviet Union team, which was considered the best hockey team in the world. As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) picked the Miracle on Ice as the number-one international hockey story of the century. This is a clip from the last few seconds of the miracle game. Listen to that crowd!