The game of ice hockey was first contested at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, and has been a mainstay of every Olympic program since. It’s the most popular men’s event at the Olympics, and Canada has won the most gold medals in the sport’s history. In the 1980 Olympics, a famous moment in Olympic ice hockey history took place when the U.S. team beat the Soviet Union in the ‘Miracle on Ice’ game.
Olympic ice hockey rules differ slightly from those in the NHL, as is true of most ice sports. For example, fighting is not allowed in the Olympic tournament, and players who willingly participate in a fight are penalized. The sport also follows the World Anti-Doping Agency’s rules on performance enhancing drugs and maintains a Registered Testing Pool for top players.
In addition to a standard set of rules, Olympic ice hockey also uses different overtime periods depending on what stage of the tournament they are playing in. In group play and quarterfinal games, there are no ties; the winner is determined by the first team to score in the extra period. For the semifinal and final rounds, the rules change again. During these rounds, the teams are divided into two groups, and the winner of each group goes to the medal round.
In 1998, the format for the tournament changed again. Until that time, teams played a preliminary round without NHL players and then had a medal round in which the top six teams (Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States) competed together.
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