Ice Hockey

Ice hockey, game played between two teams. Each team usually having six players, who wear skates and compete on an ice rink. The object is to propel a vulcanized rubber disk, the puck, past a goal line and into a net guarded by a goaltender, or goalie.

Ice hockey has become one of the most well-known of international sports with its speed and its frequent physical contact. The game is an Olympic sport, and worldwide there are more than a million registered players performing regularly in leagues. It is perhaps Canada’s most popular game. The first national hockey organization, the Amateur Hockey Association (AHA) of Canada was formed in Montreal in 1885. During the same year, the first league was formed in Kingston with four teams: the Kingston Hockey Club, Queen’s University, the Kingston Athletics, and the Royal Military College. Queen’s University scored a 3–1 victory over the Athletics in the first championship game. The team, the Portage Lakers, was owned by a dentist named J.L. Gibson, who imported Canadian players. Gibson formed the first acknowledged professional league, the International Pro Hockey League in 1904. When the Ontario Professional Hockey League was formed, Canada accepted professional hockey in 1908. By that time Canada had become the center of world hockey.