Definition

1. Noun:
   • A team sport played on ice: A fast-paced, physical game where two teams, each with six players on the ice (including a goalkeeper), use long sticks with curved ends to shoot a hard rubber disk (called a puck) into the opponent's goal to score points.

Usage

• As a subject: "Ice hockey is the national winter sport of Canada."
• As an object: "They went to watch an ice hockey game at the arena."
• With modifiers: "Professional ice hockey requires great skill and endurance."

Examples

• "The children practiced ice hockey every Saturday morning at the local rink."
• "She follows the ice hockey league closely and knows all the team statistics."
• "The Olympic ice hockey tournament features the best players in the world."

Advanced Usage

• "to play ice hockey": To participate in the sport.
  • He learned to play ice hockey when he was five years old.
• Contextual Use: The term is often shortened to just "hockey" in countries where it is the primary form of hockey (e.g., Canada, the United States, Northern Europe). In other contexts, "hockey" may refer to field hockey.
  • In Canada, when people say "hockey," they almost always mean ice hockey.

Variants and Related Words

• Hockey (noun): A common short form for "ice hockey" in specific regions.
• Puck (noun): The vulcanized rubber disk used in ice hockey.
• Rink (noun): The ice surface, enclosed by boards, on which ice hockey is played.
• Goalie/Goaltender (noun): The player who defends the goal.

Synonyms

• Hockey (in specific regional contexts).

Related Phrases

• Power play: A situation in ice hockey where one team has a numerical advantage in players because the opponent has a player in the penalty box.
  • The team scored during a 5-on-3 power play.
• Hat trick: The achievement of one player scoring three goals in a single game.
  • The crowd threw their hats onto the ice to celebrate the player's hat trick.
• Face-off: The method used to begin play at the start of a period or after a stoppage, where two opposing players try to gain control of the puck after it is dropped by an official.
  • The center won the crucial face-off in the defensive zone.

Noun

1. a game played on an ice rink by two opposing teams of six skaters each who try to knock a flat round puck into the opponents' goal with angled sticks