Finnish forward Mika Pyörälä, a mainstay of Oulun Kärpät for the majority of his twenty-two year pro hockey career, announced his retirement from the game following Kärpät’s elimination from the 2022 Liiga postseason, at the age of 40.
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Category Archives: IHLC News
🇺🇸 Boston Pride Capture Second Consecutive Isobel Cup
After an improbable season, marred once again by COVID delays, the Boston Pride improbably escaped the quarterfinals, upset the Toronto Six 5-1 in the semifinals, and tonight notched a come from behind victory over the PHF’s top seed, the Connecticut Whale, winning the Isobel Cup Final 4-2 to win their second straight, and third overall, Cup title.
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🇷🇺 Alexander Yeryomenko Announces Retirement Following Dynamo Elimination
Russian goaltender Alexander Yeryomenko, a two-time World Champion and six-time Russian league champion, today announced his retirement at the age of 41, after his club Dynamo Moscow was eliminated from the ongoing KHL playoffs.
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IIHF Announces Tournament Updates Following Russia, Belarus Suspensions
Just under three weeks after announcing that Russia and Belarus were banned from IIHF participation after the Russian-led and Belarusian-backed invasion of Ukraine that began on 24 February, today the International Ice Hockey Federation announced replacement clubs for upcoming participation in the upcoming 2022 Men’s, Women’s and Junior World Championships.
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🇷🇺 🇧🇾 Russia, Belarus Suspended From IIHF Competition, Hosting Rights
After a sweeping recommendation from the International Olympic Committee to remove Russia and Belarus from international sporting competitions, following their invasion of Ukraine that began on 24 February, today the International Ice Hockey Federation announced a number of updates regarding their respective participation and hosting of future competitions.
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🇨🇦 Five Canadian Players Join Triple Gold Club
By virtue of Canada’s dominant Gold Medal victory in Beijing, five new players from Team Canada have now joined the women’s version of the Triple Gold Club, all adding Olympic Gold to their World Championship Gold and Clarkson Cup titles.
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🇫🇮 Recurring Injuries Force Tuukka Rask Into Retirement
After making a failed comeback attempt with the Boston Bruins this season, recurring hip injuries have forced Finnish goaltender Tuukka Rask into early retirement at the age of 34.
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IHLC Preview – 2022 Winter Olympics (Men’s)
For the second straight Olympics, the men’s hockey tournament will not feature NHL superstars (although this time due to COVID-19), making the Olympic tournament not necessarily a true “best on best,” but still a showcase of some of the world’s top talent looking to capture Gold and Olympic glory in Beijing.
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IHLC Preview – 2022 Winter Olympics (Women’s)
The seventh ever women’s Olympic tournament is set to kick off this Thursday, with an anticipated showdown once again between Canada and the United States likely to highlight the Gold Medal Match for the sixth time.
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🇨🇦 Clark Gillies: 1954-2022
Clark Gillies, the Canadian enforcer and Hall of Famer who helped the New York Islanders to four straight Stanley Cups as part of their 1980’s dynasty, today sadly passed away at the age of 67.
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IHLC 2021 In Review – Junior
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Hockey Lineal Championship only saw seven games of competition this year on the junior side, nearly a year apart, all in Edmonton, and cut short thanks to the outright cancellation of the 2022 World Junior Championship thanks to the Omicron variant.
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IHLC 2021 In Review – Men’s
With the international hockey calendar returning (relatively) to normal in 2021, the IHLC saw a flurry of activity throughout the year, bookended with stops on the Euro Hockey Tour, and a relocated World Championship in between. Continue reading
IHLC 2021 In Review – Women’s
After a tumultuous year that saw the IIHF Women’s Championship be cancelled for the second straight year, then revived in August, the IHLC finally saw a return to relative normalcy in the second half of 2021, in the lead-up to the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
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Remainder Of 2022 World Junior Championship Cancelled
After the third game in two days needed to be cancelled due to positive cases on an individual team, today the IIHF announced that the remainder of the 2022 World Junior Championships in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta, Canada would be cancelled.
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🇨🇦 🇺🇸 Remainder Of 2021-22 Rivalry Series Cancelled
After their scheduled matchup for 20 December in Saint Paul, Minnesota was cancelled due to the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, today Hockey Canada announced the final two games of their Rivalry Series against the United States, set to take place in early January in Alberta, have been cancelled as well.
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IIHF Confirms No Relegation From 2022 World Junior Championship
After a degree of uncertainty surrounding how the IIHF would handle the 2023 World Junior Championships after the bottom two division tournaments set to take place in January 2022 were cancelled due to COVID-19, today they announced no teams in the ongoing Top Division would be relegated in 2022.
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🇷🇸 🇲🇽 IIHF Cancels January 2022 Tournaments, Including Junior Division IIB & III
Thanks to the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant across the globe, the IIHF today announced that all tournaments set to begin in January 2022 will be cancelled, including the entire Under-18 Women’s World Championship, and the two bottom Divisions in the World Junior Championship.
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IHLC Preview – 2022 World Junior Championship
After COVID-19 forced the 2021 World Junior Championship into a bubble, the tournament returns to Alberta, Canada for 2022, with Edmonton and Red Deer hosting the world’s top under-20 hockey teams in front of fans for the first time since January 2020, just before the world changed forever.
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NHL Withdraws From 2022 Olympics Due To COVID Postponements
After having to cancel fifty games in the past week over protocols due to the new Omicron COVID-19 variant, the National Hockey League today officially announced that due to the material impact of these postponements on the 2021-22 season, they will be withdrawing their players from participating in the upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympic Games.
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🇧🇾 Belarus Promoted To World Junior Top Division In 2023
After a one-year stasis of the same ten teams in the World Junior Championship Top Division thanks to COVID-19, today Belarus punched their ticket to Russia in 2023 by emerging victorious atop Division IA in Denmark, going a perfect 5-0 in the tournament and sealing their victory with a win over Norway.
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International Hockey Lineal Championship 