Ice hockey is a sport played by two teams of six players on a rectangular surface of ice called a rink.  The players, who wear ice skates, attempt to knock a circular piece of hard rubber, the puck, into one of two goals, situated at opposite ends of the rink.  Players use a stick with a flat blade at one end to drive the puck forward at speeds that sometimes exceed 160 km/h (100 mph).  Ice hockey has traditionally been a cold-weather sport, and Canada and the former Soviet Union have been the two nations with the greatest number of active players.  Hockey is played by professionals and amateurs and is a popular spectator sport. 
 

HISTORY 
 

    Records of early hockey games date back to mid-19th-century Canada.  The first formal hockey game was played in Kingston, Ontario, in 1855, with teams drawn from the Royal Canadian Rifles, an Imperial Army troop.  McGill University students played the game in the 1870s.  The first set of hockey rules was codified by W. F. Robertson, a McGill student, who adapted the rules of field hockey for play on ice.  Robertson's rules called for nine players on a side and the use of a square puck.  The first amateur league was formed in 1885.  In 1893 the governor general of Canada, Lord Stanley of Preston, offered a trophy (the Stanley Cup) to be awarded to the best Canadian hockey team.  Today the cup is awarded annually to a professional team--the champion of the National Hockey League (NHL).  In the same year (1893), hockey was first played in the United States at Yale and The Johns Hopkins universities.  In 1917 several Canadian hockey teams banded together and organized the NHL. 
    Hockey became an Olympic Games event in 1920, and in 1924 the newly founded Boston Bruins became the first professional hockey team among the previously amateur teams of the NHL.  In the 1978-79 hockey season the NHL consisted of 17 professional teams in cities in the United States and Canada.  The NHL was rivaled by the 6 teams of the World Hockey Association (WHA), founded in the 1972-73 season.  In 1979 the NHL agreed to absorb the WHA, expanding to include 4 of the remaining 8 teams.  The NHL remained at 21 teams until the 1991-92 season, when it added one team:  2 more teams were added in the 1992-93 season.  The NHL now has a total of 24 teams. 
 

EQUIPMENT AND THE RINK 
 

    Hockey rinks vary in size, although standard International Ice Hockey Federation (and NHL) dimensions specify a rink 200 ft (60.9 m) long and 85 ft (25.9 m) wide, with corners rounded into the arc of a circle with a 30-ft (0.14-m) radius.  The rink is enclosed by 4-ft-high (1.2-m) retaining boards and is divided into three zones--two end zones and a neutral zone. The zones are marked on the ice by blue lines that extend up the sides of the boards.  Two red goal lines, 2 in (5 cm) wide, run the width of the rink.  There is a space of 11 ft (3.35 m) between the goal lines and the barrier boards at each end of the ice.  There are two goal cages that have openings 4 ft (1.2 m) high and 6 ft (1.83 m) wide, with the posts resting on the goal lines.  The backs of the goals have a netting that stops pucks shot into the goal and makes judging a score easier.  Two 12-in-wide (30-cm) blue lines are marked in the center of the rink 60 ft (18.28 m) from each goal line.  The blue lines also extend the width of the ice.  A red line, seen only in professional ice hockey, also 12 in wide, bisects the length of the rink between the blue lines.  The blue lines designate attacking and defending zones, depending on which team controls the puck. 
    In the center of the rink is a red spot 12 in (30 cm) in diameter, circumscribed by a line 2 in (5 cm) wide with a 10-ft (3-m) radius.  There are four other spots and circles of the same size, two in each end zone.  They are located halfway between each goalpost and the boards and 15 ft (4.6 m) out from the goal lines.  In professional hockey four red spots of the same size are in the neutral zone midway between the boards and the center of the rink and 5 ft (1.5 m) from each blue line. The center spot is where play starts at the beginning of each period or after a goal is scored.  The other spots are where play is resumed after any stop in play.  Around the mouth of the goal is an area called the crease that is delineated by 2-in-wide (5-cm) red lines.  The puck is a disk-shaped piece of black vulcanized rubber 3 in (7.6 cm) in diameter and 1 in (2.5 cm) thick;  it weighs 5.5-6 oz (156-170 g). 
    Most sticks have aluminum shafts with replaceable wooden blades.  The handles may be no more than 55 in (1.4 m) long, 1.25 in (3.2 cm) wide, and 0.75 in (1.9 cm) thick.  The blades may be no more than 12.5 in (32 cm) long and 3 in (7.6 cm) wide.  Goaltenders' sticks may be wider and heavier.  Ice hockey skates have a short blade that is slightly curved, which permits quick turns and stops.  Goaltenders' skates have longer, flat blades for stability. 
Players wear protective shoulder, hip, and elbow pads, knee and shin guards, and heavy leather gloves;  some also wear helmets. Goaltenders wear massive leg and chest pads and a glove similar to a baseball mitt with which to catch flying pucks.  Most goaltenders also wear a face mask. 

PLAY OF THE GAME 
 

    Each team consists of a goaltender, two defenders, and three forwards (a center and two wings).  In the professional leagues play is supervised by three major officials;  in amateur games two officials are used. 
    Play of the three 20-minute periods starts at the center spot with a face-off--the official drops the puck, and the two centers try to control it. 
Actual play in hockey is frequently interrupted by one of two infractions:  offside and icing.  A player is offside if he or she precedes the puck into the attacking zone.  This rule prevents players from hovering by the goal when the puck is not in the attacking zone.  A face-off is then held at one of the red spots in the neutral zone nearest to where the infraction was committed. 
    Icing is called when the puck crosses the center and goal lines without being touched by the opposition.  An icing penalty warrants a face-off in the defensive zone of the penalized team at the red spot nearest to the location of the infraction. 
    Other infractions include tripping, holding, and hooking or spearing with the stick.  For such fouls the offending player must leave the game for 2-5 minutes.  More serious infractions, such as fighting, draw 5- or 10-minute penalties.  The penalized team must play shorthanded, while the other team, at full strength, enjoys a power-play situation.  The penalized player may return if his or her team surrenders a goal during the time he or she spends in the penalty box. 
The team that scores more goals by the end of the third period is the winner.  Beginning in 1983-84, the NHL adopted a rule providing for one 5-minute sudden-death overtime period in regular-season games.  A similar rule had been in effect for play-off games.  In amateur play the first score in a 10-minute overtime period decides the outcome. 
 

Picture Captions 
 

    Ice hockey players require considerable protection because the game is both violent and fast-paced.  Forwards and defensive players wear streamlined equipment to reduce wind resistance. Because the goalkeeper uses any part of his body to block the puck, his equipment must provide even more protection. 

Bobby Orr (1948-  ), a defenseman for the NHL's Boston Bruins, set most of the scoring records for players at his position even though his career was cut short by injuries.  He was the first defenseman to score 100 points (goals and assists combined) in a season; the first to lead the league in scoring; and the first to amass more than 30 goals in a season. His 102 assists in the 1970-71 season are also unsurpassed by a defenseman. Orr had 270 goals and 645 assists in his career. 

Philip Anthony Esposito (1942-  ) was a record-breaking National Hockey League center.  In the 1968-69 season, Esposito became the first player to score more than 100 points when he tallied 126.  In his 18-year career, Esposito was the NHL's Most Valuable Player twice (1969, 1974). He retired during the 1980-81 season. 

Wayne Gretzky (1961-  ) stick-handles the puck in a National Hockey League game.  Gretzky, a center, played 9 years for the Edmonton Oilers before being traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988.  A perennial scoring champion and Most Valuable Player, he led the Oilers to 4 Stanley Cups and holds over 50 NHL records. 

New York Islanders right wing Mike Bossy (1957- ), who twice led the National Hockey League in goals scored, won the Lady Byng trophy for sportsmanship three times. 

Maurice "Rocket" Richard (1921-   ) was the first National Hockey League player to score 8 points in a game and the first to score in 9 consecutive games. 

Gordie Howe (1928- ) was professional ice hockey's most durable athlete. Howe played in a record 1,767 games in his National Hockey League career with the 

Detroit Red Wings (1946-71) and Hartford Whalers (1979-80). While Howe's NHL lifetime record for goals scored (801) was safe for the time being, his record for total points (1,850) was surpassed by Wayne Gretzky on Oct. 15, 1989.