Ice hockey

Ice hockey is played on a huge flat area of ice, using a three inch (76.2 mm) diameter vulcanized rubber disc called a puck. This puck is often frozen before high-level games to decrease the amount of lively and friction on the ice. The game is contested among with two teams of skaters. The game is played all over North America, Europe and in many other countries around the world to unreliable extent. It is mainly popular sport in Canada and in Finland.

The governing body is the 64-member International Ice Hockey Federation, (IIHF). Men's ice hockey has been played at the Winter Olympics since 1924, and was in the 1920 Summer Olympics and Women's ice hockey was added to the Winter Olympics in 1998. North America's National Hockey League (NHL) is the strongest professional ice hockey league, drawing top ice hockey players from in the region of the globe. The NHL rules are slightly vary from those used in Olympic ice hockey: the periods are 20 minutes long, counting downwards. There are three periods.