Ice Hockey -- A Chill Olympic Event

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Ice Hockey -- A Chill Olympic Event

Ice Hockey is a fast exciting team sport. Ice Hockey introduced in the early part of 19th century in Canada. The word “hockey” gets derived from the old French word “hocquet” meaning “stick”. In 1860, a puck replaced the ball. In 1879, Robertson and Smith, the two McGill university students devised the first rules for this game. The first recognized team was the McGill university hockey club. Ice Hockey became the national sport of Canada and spread throughout the country.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) was established in 1908. Ice Hockey made its Olympic debut at the 1924 Chamonix winter games. Men's Ice Hockey has been played at all the Olympic Games. Canada dominated the sport in early tournaments and in 1956 Soviet Union breaks the record and remained as a number one force until its break-up. Women's Ice Hockey was approved as an Olympic sport in 1992 and made its debut in 1998.

Ice Hockey get played in a rink measuring 60 m x 30 m. Two blue lines separate the rink into three zones. The three zones are one neutral and two attacking/defending zones. The substitutions of players get done in the neutral zone. When the puck goes into the goal post and an attacking player is in the goal crease then the referee rejects the goal. The red light signals a goal and green light indicates the end of a period.

In this event, the players have to wear elbow pads, gloves, groin protector, shoulder pad, chest plate, throat guard, knee pads, skates, visor and helmet. The goalie wears helmet with mask, one piece upper body guard, shield, leg pads, groin protector, throat guard, goalie gloves and Reinforced skates. They carry sticks to hit the puck. The puck is 2.54 cm (1 inch) in thickness and 7.62 cm (3 inches) in diameter. The puck weighs 156 to 170 grams (7 to 8 ounces).

Women's compete in an eight team tournament and men's compete in a 12 team tournament. The major difference is that the body checking is not there in the women's event. Squads contain 23 players including three goalies per team for men and 21 players and three goalies for women's. Six players were in the field at the time of play on each side. The positions of six players are one goalie, one center, two defenders and two wings. A goalkeeper can be replaced for another skater at the team's own risk.

Twelve teams participate in the first round with three groups. A group has four teams. They get ranked as whole from one to twelve. The top four teams directly go to quarters. The remaining eight teams playoff as fifth against twelfth, sixth against eleventh and so on. The winners of playoff go to quarters. The direct winners and playoff winners compete one on one and the winners go to semis. The losers of semis play for the third position (bronze) and the winners of semis play for gold.

The event takes place as three periods of 20 minutes. A break of 15 minutes between each period is available. In case of a draw, a penalty shootout with three series of shots will decide until the winner emerges. If a tie occurs, then five minutes overtime get played for sudden victory. In gold medal game, 20 minutes of sudden victory get played. In case of tie even after the overtime then penalty shootout takes place to determine the winner. Elbowing, slashing and interference are some of the fouls in this game. The player who did the foul gets punished by a spell in the sin bin. The player has to sit 2, 5 or 10 minutes depending on the foul made.

dbal
Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:00:31 +0000

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