Ice Hockey

Tickets to the men’s ice hockey final are the most sought after seats for the entire Games. Canada’s national sport is ice hockey and both of their teams are in with a great shot at gold. The love of this sport throughout Canada is like AFL in Melbourne.

The Canadian women are defending champions and ranked 1 in the world. The Americans are world champions however and cross-border clash for gold is likely.

For the Canadian men they know all of Canada won’t settle for anything less than gold. Home-town ice is one thing but this can be outweighed by home-town pressure! Like most teams at the Games their roster is stacked with NHL superstars. Four years ago in Italy their disastrous Olympic campaign ended in the quarter-finals.

Canada Hockey Place, regularly known as General Motors Place and home to the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, and the University of British Columbia's Thunderbird Arena will host the ice hockey competition. The tournaments will be played on North American-sized ice surfaces, rather than the larger international size that is normally used in Olympic competition.

Australia and ice hockey

Unfortunately Australia failed to qualify an ice hockey team for Vancouver 2010. Although the national league is developing in Australia it may be another few Games before the local stars realise their Olympic dreams.

Australia qualified an ice hockey team for the Winter Olympic on one occassion back in 1960 at Squaw Valley. The team finished ninth and last, scoring nine goals and conceding 83 from their six games. The following team did their best for Australia: Ben Acton (capt), Ron Arness, David Cunningham, Noel Derrick, Alfred Dewhurst, Vic Ekberg, Basil Hansen, Clive Hitch, Russell Jones, Noel McLoughlin, John Nicholas, John Parrott, Ken Pawley, Robert Reid, John Thomas, Steve Tikal, Ivan Veseley, Ken Wellman and William McEachern as coach.

Competition Format / Events

Men’s Tournament

The men's tournament in Vancouver features 12 teams, split into three groups: Canada, the United States, Switzerland and Norway in Group A; Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Latvia in Group B; and Sweden, Finland, Belarus and Germany in Group C.

In the preliminary rounds each team play against each other in their group.
The top four teams from the preliminary round, three group winners, plus the best second place team, get a “bye” into the quarter-finals and do not have to play any qualification games.

The remaining eight teams play one sudden-death playoff game in the qualification playoffs. The four winners advance to meet the winners of the preliminary round for one quarter-final game each. The remaining four teams are ranked 9th through 12th place according to IIHF rules.

The four winners of the quarter-final games advance to play one semifinal game each. The remaining four teams are ranked 5th through 8th place according to IIHF rules.

The two winners of the semifinal games advance to the gold medal game. The remaining two teams play in the bronze medal game.

Women’s Tournament

The women's tournament features eight teams, split into two groups: Canada, Sweden Switzerland and Slovakia in Group A; and the United States, Finland, Russia and China in Group B.
These teams play a round-robin competition, where each team plays against every team in its group. All eight teams advance to the playoff round but only the top two in each pool remain in medal contention.

The top two teams from each group advance and play a cross-over (1st vs 2nd) in the semifinals. The two winners of the semifinal games advance to the gold medal game. The remaining two teams play the bronze medal game.

The bottom two teams from each preliminary round group play for positions 5 through 8 in final classification games. The 3rd ranked teams from each group play the 4th ranked teams from the other group.

Overtime and Game-Winning Shots

During the preliminary round and qualification games, if the game is tied at the end of regulation time, a five-minute overtime period is played following a three-minute intermission.

A goal scored during this overtime period ends the game immediately. If the game is still tied at the end of the overtime period, game-winning shots determine the outcome.

During the quarter-finals, semifinals and bronze medal games, if the game is tied at the end of regulation time, a 10-minute overtime period is played following a three-minute intermission.

A goal scored during this overtime period ends the game immediately. If the game is still tied at the end of the overtime period, game-winning shots determine the outcome.

During the gold medal game, if the game is tied at the end of regulation time a 20-minute overtime period is played following a 15-minute intermission (during which time the ice is resurfaced). A goal scored during this overtime period ends the game immediately. If the game is still tied at the end of the overtime period, game-winning shots determine the outcome.

If game-winning shots are needed, three players from each team alternately take one shot each until a decisive goal is scored. The remaining shots are not taken. If the game is still tied, the teams continue to alternate shots until a decisive goal is scored. Only the decisive goal is counted in the final result of the game.