Rules For Ice Hockey

A Few Facts And Rules About Womens Hockey

Are you aware of how much womens ice hockey has increased in popularity?  Hockey has typically been a men’s sport, not a women’s sport.  Women ice hockey players have increased by 350% over the last ten years. However, the number of women’s professional ice hockey leagues is still significantly smaller than men’s professional hockey leagues.  Still, you might be surprised at how many girl hockey there are.

In 1970, the first woman offically became a professional hockey player.  It was then that the Marquette Iron Rangers signed Karen Koch on as a contract ice hockey player.In 1998, the Winter Olympics first included women’s ice hockey as a medal sport.  During that year, the United States won the gold medal. Canada won the silver medal, and Finland took home the bronze medal.  You might be surprised to learn that in 1992 the Tampa Bay Lightning, an NHL team, played some preseason ice hockey games with a woman as the goaltender.  Manon Rheaume is the first and only woman to play a National Hockey League preseason exhibition game.  In addition, she played many minor league ice hockey games between 1992 and 1997.  Also, there have been other women ice hockey players in the minor leagues in North America.

There is one major difference in ice hockey rules and play in womens ice hockey leagues.No checking is allowed in women’s ice hockey.  This is also a big difference in the youth ice hockey league rules.  Girls hockey also does not allow body checking while boys hockey does allowing checking.  Penalties are given by the referee when checking occurs in canada girls hockey.Women in ice hockey wear full face masks.Women’s ice hockey does not have the same amount of roughness and fighting that mens hockey has.  As more girls discover women’s hockey by watching the Winter Olympics, it is likely we will continue to see gain in popularity.

 

Hockey 101 – The Basic Rules of Hockey