Ak Bars Kazan made KHL history on home ice, upending the expected champion CSKA Moscow in only five games to win the 2018 Gagarin Cup, becoming the first team in the league’s decade-long history to win three titles (2008, 2009, 2018).
Continue reading
Category Archives: IHLC News
🇰🇷 South Korea Becomes First New Men’s IHLC Contender In 15 Years
In an international hockey world that seldom sees new nations emerge to contend for the International Hockey Lineal Championship, Slovakia’s IHLC win over Latvia today confirmed their next opponent will be South Korea (Korea Republic), making the Koreans the first new team in 15 years to contend for the IHLC.
Continue reading
🇫🇷 France Clinches Final Spot In 2019 World Women’s Championships
France’s women’s hockey team has made history in the Alps commune of Vaujany, as they became the tenth and final team to clinch a spot at the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship, becoming the first team to join the Top Division since the tournament expanded to ten teams in 2017.
Continue reading
🇨🇦 Ken Hitchcock Retires After 30+ Year Coaching Career
Longtime NHL coach Ken Hitchcock, who spent over three decades coaching many of the world’s top players on both the professional and international stage, announced his retirement from coaching the Dallas Stars on Friday, ending his career as the third winningest coach in NHL history (823 wins).
Continue reading
🇨🇿 Florida Panthers Confirm Radim Vrbata’s Retirement
The Florida Panthers confirmed that Czech forward Radim Vrbata would sit out the Panthers’ season finale in Boston, putting his 17 season career to an end, with stops in Colorado, Carolina, Chicago, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Vancouver and Florida, along with stints with Liberec and Mladá Boleslav of his native Czech league.
Continue reading
🇸🇪 Sedin Twins Announce Dual Retirement After 18 NHL Seasons
Swedish twin forwards Henrik and Daniel Sedin, proverbially joined at the hip for nearly two decades both with the Vancouver Canucks and Tre Kronor, formally ended their career tonight with the Canucks in Edmonton, closing out a historic 18-season NHL career spent side by side.
Continue reading
🇨🇦 Patrick Sharp Announces Retirement From Blackhawks
Canadian winger Patrick Sharp announced his sudden retirement from the NHL just prior to his Chicago Blackhawks’ final game of the 2017-18 season, capping his illustrious sixteen season career with three teams, three Stanley Cups, and an Olympic Gold Medal.
Continue reading
🇩🇪 Christian Ehrhoff Retires After Twenty Season Career
Christian Ehrhoff, fresh off a shocking German silver medal win at the PyeongChang Olympics, has decided to retire from hockey at the age of 35, following Kölner Haie’s elimination from the Deutsche Eishockey Liga playoffs, capping a 20 season career split between the NHL and Germany.
Continue reading
🇨🇦 🇺🇸 Clarkson & Isobel Cups Awarded, Fortino & Larocque Join Triple Gold Club
The biggest day of the year in women’s club hockey has come and gone, with the Clarkson and Isobel Cups being awarded and two Canadian defenders joining the unofficial women’s Triple Gold Club.
Continue reading
🇷🇺 Pavel Datsyuk Joins Triple Gold Club
The only male skater eligible to join at this year’s Games, Pavel Datsyuk punched his ticket to the Triple Gold Club by virtue of his Olympic Gold with the Olympic Athletes From Russia, becoming the 29th male and seventh Russian to join the club, adding to his two Stanley Cups and IIHF World Championship.
Continue reading
IIHF Confirms 2022 Olympic Women’s Tournament Expanding To Ten Teams
Following a similar mandate made for the IIHF Women’s World Championships last year, the IIHF today confirmed that the 2022 Olympic women’s tournament in Beijing, China, will expand to ten teams, in order to accommodate both the host country and a new contender in an ever-increasing talent pool in international women’s hockey.
Continue reading
IHLC Preview – 2018 Winter Olympics (Men’s)
A drastically looking different Olympic tournament, without NHL superstars present for the first time in twenty years, will make the Olympic tournament in PyeongChang a historic one, not just for which players will not be there, but to determine who is most likely to capture Gold in light of these NHL players missing.
Continue reading
IHLC Preview – 2018 Winter Olympics (Women’s)
The sixth ever women’s Olympic tournament is set to kick off this Saturday, with an anticipated showdown between Canada and the United States set to highlight the Gold Medal Match for the fifth time.
Continue reading
🇺🇸 Jim Johannson: 1964-2018
Jim Johannson, the ex-Team USA player who joined USA Hockey in 2000 and became General Manager for all American men’s teams in international competition in 2007, died suddenly last night in Colorado Springs, Colorado, just a few weeks shy of the 2018 Olympics.
Continue reading
🇰🇷 🇰🇵 IOC, IIHF Announce Historic Joint Korean Women’s Olympic Hockey Team
After days of rumour and speculation, the International Olympic Committee, in tandem with the International Ice Hockey Federation, today confirmed that the Korean Olympic women’s hockey team will feature players from both Koreas at the upcoming PyeongChang Games.
Continue reading
IHLC 2017 In Review – Junior
The International Hockey Lineal Championship stayed with Team USA for the majority of 2017, with the 2017 World Junior champions holding the IHLC for eight of a possible twelve games in 2017, including carrying the title into the medal round of the current 2018 tournament.
Continue reading
IHLC 2017 In Review – Men’s
The International Hockey Lineal Championship increased the number of champions yet again from a previous year, with eight different countries holding the title over 28 games in the lead-up to the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.
Continue reading
IHLC 2017 In Review – Women’s
The International Hockey Lineal Championship saw its usual see-saw between Canada and the United States on the women’s side, trading back and forth over a 15-game span in 2017, with both teams working to build momentum for the upcoming Olympics in PyeongChang.
Continue reading
🇷🇺 Russian Female Players Banned From Olympics For Life Due To Doping (UPDATED)
After the IOC’s landmark decision to ban Russia outright from the 2018 Olympics, but still allow individual athletes to compete under the Olympic flag if they pass IOC drug tests, the IOC today announced that members of Russia’s women’s team at the 2014 Sochi Games failed their tests, and are thus banned for life from the Olympics.
Continue reading
🇫🇮 Niklas Hagman Retires After 20 Professional Seasons
Finnish winger Niklas Hagman today announced his retirement from professional hockey at age 38, ending a 20 year career spent in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Russia and his native Finland, where he spent his last four seasons.
Continue reading
International Hockey Lineal Championship 