🇨🇦 Charline Labonté Announces Retirement From Professional Hockey


Canadian goaltender Charline Labonté today announced her retirement from both the Canadian national team and the Montréal Canadiennes, capping a nearly 20 year career where she won four Olympic Gold Medals, two World Championships and a Clarkson Cup.
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🇨🇦 Shane Doan Announces Retirement From Coyotes Organization


Arizona Coyotes forward Shane Doan, a mainstay of the organization for over 20 years since their days in Winnipeg, today announced his retirement after being released from the team, putting an end to his historic 21-year career in the league.
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🇸🇰 Ján Lašák Announces Retirement From Bílí Tygři Liberec


Netminder Ján Lašák, a mainstay in the net for Slovakia for nearly two decades, announced his retirement from pro hockey, instead opting to help overhaul a Slovak Hockey Association heading in a new direction under the leadership of former teammate and national team GM Miroslav Šatan.
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🇺🇸 🇫🇮 IHLC Classics: The Impossible Dream Comes True

From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, to celebrate Independence Day in the United States, we feature the finale of the 1980 Lake Placid Games, Team USA’s post-Miracle victory to clinch Olympic Gold on home ice.

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🇺🇸 United States 4-2 Finland 🇫🇮
Olympic Medal Round
Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid 🇺🇸
Sunday, 24 February 1980

It was a Sunday morning 30 years ago today.

You didn’t have to be a hockey fan to want to tune your television set to ABC at 11 a.m. You didn’t even have to be a sports fan, for that matter. If you were an American who wanted to see something magical and inspiring, you made an appointment with your TV that morning because you knew that the greatest of all underdogs had a chance to do something remarkable in the tiny village of Lake Placid, NY.
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🇨🇦 🇸🇪 IHLC Classics: Canada Makes It Two In Torino

From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, we shine a light on Canada’s 2006 women’s Olympic Gold victory, Canada’s second of four (and counting) Olympic titles.

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🇨🇦 Canada 4-1 Sweden 🇸🇪
Olympic Gold Medal Game
Palasport Olimpico, Turin 🇮🇹
Monday, 20 February 2006

Canada won their second consecutive Olympic women’s ice hockey gold with a 4-1 win over Sweden in Turin on Monday.
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🇸🇪 🇫🇮 IHLC Classics: Lidström’s Golden Goal

From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, to celebrate National Day (Sveriges nationaldag) in Sweden, we focus on Sweden’s second and most recent Olympic Gold Medal, won from rivals Finland at the 2006 Turin Games.

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🇸🇪 Sweden 3-2 Finland 🇫🇮
Olympic Gold Medal Game
Palasport Olimpico, Turin 🇮🇹
Sunday, 26 February 2006

The hockey world changed most dramatically and recently in the 1990s. First, the Soviet Union crumbled, after which Czechoslovakia split in two, and then NHLers started to compete at the Olympics. The result produced an astounding parity among the top teams. Consider that the “Canadian era” lasted from 1920 to 1961 and the “Soviet era” from 1962 to 1990.

That is, these countries dominated those periods of time in a way that is unimaginable today.
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NHL Confirms Players Will Not Attend 2018 PyeongChang Olympics


After months of speculation and negotiations, the National Hockey League today announced that they will not actively participate in the 2018 Olympics in Korea, ending a 20-year span of NHL participation in the Games.
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🇺🇸 U.S. Women’s Team, USA Hockey Strike New Agreement


In a good news story after weeks of bad blood between the U.S. Women’s National Team and USA Hockey, a new four year agreement has been agreed upon by both parties, ensuring that the U.S. team will suit up for the Women’s World Championships, which begin in just three days time in Plymouth, Michigan.
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🇺🇸 U.S. Women’s Team Vows Boycott Of World Championship, USA Hockey Responds


In a shocking development less than a month before the 2017 Women’s World Championship in Plymouth, Michigan, the U.S. women’s national team today announced, in solidarity, that they will sit out the Worlds in protest of a lack of support from USA Hockey, the culmination of a year’s worth of legal proceedings with the American hockey body.
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🇨🇭 🇯🇵 Switzerland And Japan Clinch Final Olympic Qualifying Spots

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After nearly half a year of Olympic qualifiers that began in Mexico last October, four rounds of play and 22 teams competing for a mere two spots in PyeongChang, the final qualification spots were today clinched by Japan and Switzerland for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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🇳🇴 🇸🇮 🇩🇪 Norway, Slovenia, Germany Nab Final 2018 Olympic Spots

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After nearly a year of Olympic qualifiers that began in Bulgaria last October, three rounds of play and 28 teams competing for just three spots in PyeongChang, the final slots were today locked up by Norway, Slovenia and Germany for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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🇨🇦 🇺🇸 IHLC Classics: Canada’s Gold Drought Ends

From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of Canada Day, we look back at the end of Canada’s Olympic Gold Medal drought in 2002, where 50 years of futility was put to rest in Salt Lake City.

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🇨🇦 Canada 5-2 United States 🇺🇸

Olympic Gold Medal Game
E Center, West Valley City 🇺🇸
Sunday, 24 February 2002

After the great disappointment of Nagano, when Canada failed to win a medal despite a tremendous lineup and Gold medal expectations, Canada was leaving nothing to chance four years later. Wayne Gretzky, who was not selected in the shootout against the Czechs in 1998, had retired and been named Canada’s general manager, and he surrounded himself with a roster of executives unlike anything in Canada’s hockey history.

Collectively, they chose the 20 skaters and three goalies who would try to bring their country Olympic glory for the first time since 1952.
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Hockey Hall Of Fame Announces 2016 Class

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The Hockey Hall Of Fame today announced the newest members that will join as the Class of 2016 on 14 November, with Eric Lindros, Sergei Makarov, Rogatien Vachon and Pat Quinn getting the call, bringing their professional and international accolades (along with their International Hockey Lineal Championship reigns) to the famed Hall in Toronto.
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🇨🇦 Vincent Lecavalier Formally Announces Retirement From Kings

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Making good on his announcement at the start of the 2015-16 NHL season, Vincent Lecavalier today announced his retirement from professional hockey, his 17 year NHL career concluding with the Los Angeles Kings’ first round playoff exit.
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🇸🇪 🇨🇦 IHLC Classics: Sweden’s First Olympic Title

From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of National Day (“Sveriges Nationaldag”) in Sweden, we look back at Sweden’s first Olympic Gold Medal, capped off by Peter Forsberg’s legendary shootout winner over Canada.

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🇸🇪 Sweden 3-2 Canada 🇨🇦 (SO)
Olympic Gold Medal Game
Håkons Hall, Lillehammer 🇳🇴
Sunday, 27 February 1994

In Sweden, this is one of the most replayed sports highlights on television. Peter Forsberg was only 20 years old when he pulled the most daring move on Canada’s goaltender Corey Hirsch in the Olympic gold medal game in Lillehammer in 1994. A classic sports moment which became immortalized on a stamp.
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🇨🇦 Corey Perry Enters Triple Gold Club

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Just a year after Canada’s captain, Sidney Crosby, joined the Triple Gold Club at the 2015 World Championships, the 2016 captain became the 27th player and tenth Canadian to join the club, with Corey Perry adding to his Stanley Cup and two Olympic Gold Medals.
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First Five Nations Qualify For 2018 Olympic Women’s Tournament

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As a result of Switzerland’s stumble out of Group B and into the relegation round at the ongoing World Championships, Russia and Sweden locked up the final two spots available to qualify automatically for the women’s tournament at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea. They join Canada, the United States, Finland and hosts Korea, with the final two spots to be gained in a qualification tournament ending in February 2017.
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