Astana-Almaty 2011

Ice Hockey

Ice hockey is a variation of Hockey and is a team sport played on ice. It is a fast paced and physical sport played on an ice rink by two opposing teams of six skaters each who try to knock a flat round puck into the opponents' goal with angled sticks.

Ice Hockey was first incorporated into the Asian Winter Games in 1986.

List of disciplines

Ice Hockey

Ice hockey is a Canadian sport which began in the early 19th century. It is based on several similar sports played in Europe, notably bandy in Scandinavia, and is somewhat similar to the sports of shinny and hurley. Around 1860, a puck was substituted for a ball, and in 1879, two McGill University students, W. F. Robertson and R. F. Smith, devised the first rules, combining field hockey and rugby regulations. Originally, the game was played as a nine-a-side competition. The first recognised team, the McGill University Hockey Club, was formed in 1880. Hockey became the Canadian national sport, with leagues everywhere. In 1894, Lord Stanley of Preston, Governor General of Canada, donated the Stanley Cup, which was first won in 1894 by a team representing the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. Between the 1880s and World War I, ice hockey became popular in Europe. The first European Championship was played in 1910 at Les Avants in the Swiss Alps, and won by Great Britain. Ice hockey also spread below the border to the United States with the foundation of the United States Amateur Hockey League in New York in 1896.