Goals galore, tasty scuffles and fierce rivalries combine to put ice hockey right up there among the highlights of the Winter Olympic programme.
A sport traditionally dominated by Canada, it may surprise you to learn Great Britain have been Olympic ice hockey champions, topping the podium at Garmisch-Partenkirchen back in 1936.
Team GB are not represented this time around but there remains plenty to be excited about.
How many players are on an ice hockey team?
Six players per team can be on the ice at any time.
Usually, these are made up of five skaters and one goaltender but in certain scenarios, such as when chasing a goal late on, the goaltender can be replaced by another skater. It is a tactical quirk which can make for some memorable scenes.
Men’s teams can have a maximum of 25 players (22 skaters and three goaltenders), while women’s teams can be made up of up to 23 players, including three goaltenders.
How long do matches last?
Ice hockey matches last 60 minutes and are split into three 20-minute periods.
What happens if a match is tied?
This depends on the stage of the competition. For the majority of the competition, a tie is followed by a period of overtime, during which the first team to score is crowned winners. If no team scores during overtime, a shootout decides the victorious team.
In the gold medal match, however, this changes. Due to a desire to ensure the ultimate prize is claimed on the ice rather than via a shootout, sudden death overtime continues until a goal is scored, with the ice resurfaced between 20-minute overtime periods.
What is the format at Milano Cortina?
In the men’s competition, the 12 qualified nations are split into three groups of four. After the group stage, the teams are ranked from 1-12 based on their performance – the top four go directly through to the quarter-finals, with the remaining eight going into the play-offs.
The four play-off winners then advance to the quarter-finals, which are followed by the semi-finals, bronze medal match and gold medal match.
Ten nations will compete in the women’s competition, split into two groups of five. All five teams in Group A and the top three in Group B will then contest the quarter-finals, which are followed by the semi-finals, bronze medal match and gold medal match.
Will NHL players be featuring?
For the first time since 2014, the answer to this question is yes.
The National Hockey League has reversed a ban on its players featuring at the Winter Olympics, which is particularly good news for Canada and USA.
Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel and Quinn Hughes are among the star names in the 25-man US team, while Canada’s squad includes Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.
Olympic veteran Hilary Knight leads the US women’s hockey team at her fifth Games, while Laila Edwards will become the first Black women’s player to represent the US in the Winter Games.
What are the main rivalries?
The most obvious is Canada-USA, in both the men’s and women’s arena.
The 4 Nations clashes between the pair were particularly tasty last year and even the politicians got involved, with Justin Trudeau aiming a dig at Donald Trump after Canada’s dramatic 3-2 overtime victory.
USA have not won men’s ice hockey gold since the Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid 1980, when a team largely made up of college students shut out the mighty USSR in a match which had similar geopolitical tension.
In the women’s game, no country other than the USA or Canada has won gold since it was introduced into the programme in 1998, while every final except one has featured both nations.
It is not just the Transatlantic heavyweights who love going head-to-head on the ice, however – just ask any Swedes or Finns.
Sweden won a classic gold medal match between the Nordic neighbours 3-2 at Turin 2006 but Finland earned revenge last time out in Beijing, prevailing 4-3 in a thrilling semi-final and going on to win their first-ever Olympic medal in a team sport.
Sportsbeat 2025