The Basics: Men's teams will have 23 players, while women's teams will have 20. A team has only six players on the ice at a time: one goalkeeper, two defenders and three forwards. Games are made up of three 20-minute periods, separated by two 15-minute intermissions. The Olympic rink is about 15 feet wider than an NHL rink, giving players more room to skate.
Also, in Olympic hockey physical play is treated much more harshly than in the NHL. For example, a second major penalty in the same game carries an automatic game-misconduct penalty, and any player starting a fight is assessed a match penalty.
History: Although Canadian hockey teams traveled to the United States to play exhibition games in the late 1800s, the United States did not compete against teams from outside of North America until 1920. That year, the Americans made their debut at the Antwerp Olympics. Led by hockey Hall of Famer Francis "Moose" Goheen, Team USA won the silver medal, its lone loss coming against Canada. In 1924, the Americans repeated as silver medalists at the Chamonix Olympics.
Until the creation of the United States Amateur Hockey Association in 1920, amateur hockey had been controlled by the International Skating Union. The USAHA disbanded at the end of the 1925-26 season and left amateur hockey in the United States without a governing body until 1930 when the Amateur Athletic Union took over. During that period of instability, the U.S. missed the 1928 Olympics and 1930 World Championship.
The United States rebounded at the 1932 Games, held in Lake Placid, N.Y., to win another silver medal. The United States won back-to-back silver medals at the 1952 and 1956 Winter Olympics, and at the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley, Calif., the Americans beat Canada and the Soviet Union on their way to the gold medal.
The victory at Squaw Valley is credited with prompting a tremendous growth of the sport in the United States as high school programs began feeding increasingly skilled players into the college hockey system.
The Americans won a silver medal at the 1972 Olympics, and eight years later the United States battled its way to a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.
Women's hockey, which has been played as far back as 1916, joined its male counterpart on the international scene in 1990 with the advent of the first IIHF Women's World Championship. The U.S. women won the silver medal in 1990, and have brought home silver in the two world championships (1992 and 1994) and two Pacific Women's Championships (1995 and 1996) since then. Women's ice hockey will debut as a medal sport in Nagano.
Tripping: 
Elbowing: 
High sticking: 
Slashing: 
Hooking: 