Melody Davidson, the Canadian management official who has helped to revolutionize women’s hockey and turn Canada into the international juggernaut they are, announced she will be leaving Hockey Canada, an organization she has been with since 1994.
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🇨🇦 🇸🇰 Hockey Hall Of Fame Announces Class Of 2020
The Hockey Hall Of Fame today announced the newest members that will join as the Class of 2020, with two first-ballot inductees joining a trio of Canadian players who have long awaited their call to the Hall in Toronto.
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2020 IIHF Extraordinary Congress Sets Future Calendar
With the scheduled 2020 IIHF Congress that was set for Zürich during the now-cancelled 2020 World Championships, today the International Ice Hockey Federation held their Extraordinary Congress virtually (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), setting the schedule for both the 2020-21 international hockey calendar, as well as for the 2022 Olympic qualification.
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🇨🇿 Martin Erat Retires From Kometa Brno At Age 38
Czech winger Martin Erat, who spent twenty years professionally in the NHL, KHL and Czech leagues, as well as representing the Narodnitym many times, today announced his retirement from his final club, HC Kometa Brno.
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🇷🇺 🇨🇦 IHLC Classics: The Red Army Stuns Canada…And The World
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 Russian National Day, we feature the Red Army’s first major international title, and their debut IHLC matchup, against Canada to finish the 1954 World Championship.
🇷🇺 Soviet Union 7-2 Canada 🇨🇦
World Championship Final Round
Stockholms Olympiastadion, Stockholm 🇸🇪
Sunday, 07 March 1954
There is no question that 1954 was the start of the modern era of international hockey. Prior to the World Championship in Stockholm, Sweden, that year, Canada ruled the ice lanes uncontested. Indeed, from 1920 to 1954, it lost only two significant games, one to the United States at the 1933 World Championship and one to Great Britain at the 1936 Olympics.
But in 1954, the Soviet Union made its first appearance in international hockey, and it did so in a blaze of glory. The Soviets had only started playing “Canadian hockey” (as opposed to European bandy) in 1946, and just eight years later that nation’s top players and managers believed they were ready to play against the world – and win.
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🇫🇮 Lasse Kukkonen Retires At 38 From Oulu Kärpät
Finnish defender Lasse Kukkonen, a mainstay of the Leijonat since 1999 that helped Finland to just its second World Championship in history in 2011, today announced his retirement from his hometown club, Oulu Kärpät, at age 38.
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🇺🇸 🇸🇪 🇫🇮 Plymouth Set To Host 2020 World Junior Summer Showcase, Without Canada
Despite tournaments being cancelled left and right due to the COVID-19 pandemic, USA Hockey has confirmed that they plan on hosting the 2020 World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, Michigan this summer, although Hockey Canada has already confirmed they will not be attending.
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🇸🇪 🇺🇸 IHLC Classics: “Mirakel” In Turin
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 Swedish Sveriges nationaldag (National Day), we feature the biggest win in Damkronorna history, their 2006 shootout upset over the United States in Turin.
🇸🇪 Sweden 3-2 United States 🇺🇸 (SO)
Olympic Semifinal
Palasport Olimpico, Turin 🇮🇹
Friday, 17 February 2006
There was no reason to suspect that anything would be different in 2006. Since 1990, when women’s hockey became an official IIHF event, every finals had been a Canada-USA affair. This was the rivalry that kept women’s hockey alive and exciting, but in some ways it was also one that was taking interest away from the sport.
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🇨🇦 Multi-Olympic Gold Winner Haley Irwin Announces Retirement
Canadian forward Haley Irwin, a two-time Olympic and one-time World Championship Gold medal winner, today announced her retirement from the Canadian national team at age 31.
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🇸🇰 Ján Laco Announces Retirement At Age 38
Slovak goaltender Ján Laco, whose theatrics at the 2012 World Championship landed Slovakia a surprise Silver medal, today announced his retirement from pro hockey at the age of 38.
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🇬🇧 🇨🇦 IHLC Classics: Foster & Brenchley Shock The World
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.” To celebrate on what should have been the day of the 2020 World Championship Gold Medal final, instead we recap one of the biggest upsets in Olympic and World Championship history, the fall of Canada at the hands of Great Britain in 1936.
🇬🇧 Great Britain 2-1 Canada 🇨🇦
Olympic Second Round
Olympia-Kunsteis-Stadion, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 🇩🇪
Tuesday, 11 February 1936
It was an Olympics coated in sportive controversy and by the presence of Adolf Hitler, who used the global sports event as a propaganda tool, three years before the outbreak of the biggest catastrophe in the history of mankind.
In the end, history shows that Canada lost the Gold medal and Great Britain won. The process to that result, however, was anything but simple.
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KHL Hands Out Truncated 2019-20 Awards
Despite being forced to cancel the remainder of the 2020 Gagarin Cup playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kontinental Hockey League today announced a handful of award winners based on the 2019-20 regular season. Continue reading
🇺🇸 2020 Isobel Cup Final Cancelled Due To COVID-19
With only one game to go in the 2019-20 NWHL season, the Isobel Cup final between the defending champion Minnesota Whitecaps and the Boston Pride, the NWHL today announced the final will be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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🇨🇿 Aleš Hemský Announces Retirement At Age 36
Aleš Hemský, the workhorse Czech winger who spent 15 years in the National Hockey League, today announced his retirement from pro hockey at age 36, after a concussion prevented him from playing for the past three years.
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🇨🇦 Canada’s Boycott: 1970-77
With the now-cancelled 2020 World Championships set to have begun today in Switzerland, TheIHLC.com will instead highlight the last time there was a major lack of competition in the century-plus lineage of the IHLC – Canada’s international hockey boycott from 1970-77, and how the IHLC could have looked if just one fateful game in 1970 went another way.
On 04 January 1970, the creator of modern ice hockey and the most dominant team in the game up to that point, Canada, shocked the hockey world when it announced that effective immediately, it was withdrawing from all international competition, including the World Championships, Olympic Games and other exhibition games or tournaments.
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2020 IIHF Rankings, Olympic Seedings Released (UPDATED)
With the world on pause, and all international hockey cancelled, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the IIHF today answered a few of many questions coming out of the cancellations of most major World Championship tournaments, today releasing both the 2020 Men’s and Women’s World Ranking, which in turn has officially confirmed the first qualifiers for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
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🇨🇦 🇸🇪 IHLC Classics: The Falcons Capture Inaugural Olympic Gold
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.” To celebrate the centennial anniversary of the first Olympic hockey champions at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, today we feature the Winnipeg Falcons, who represented Canada at this historic tournament.
🇨🇦 Canada 12-1 Sweden 🇸🇪
Olympic Gold Medal Game
Palais de Glace d’Anvers, Antwerp 🇧🇪
Monday, 26 April 1920
Seth Howander took one look at the Canadian team and decided the leggings and leather apron he usually wore in net weren’t going to cut it. Then the Swedish goaltender gathered up all the absorbent cotton he could find and covered himself in the stuff.
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🇷🇺 Andrei Markov Retires Following KHL Season Cancellation
Andrei Markov, the Russian workhorse defenceman who anchored top bluelines for over 20 seasons in both Canada and his native Russia, today announced his retirement from Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL at age 41, three weeks after the KHL season was suspended over COVID-19.
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🇸🇪 Tony Mårtensson Announces Retirement At Age 39
Tony Mårtensson, the Swedish winger whose 20 year pro career took him to the United States, Russia, Switzerland and his native Sweden, today announced his retirement from pro hockey at age 39.
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🇨🇦 Pat Stapleton: 1940-2020
Pat Stapleton, a defensive star throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s in both the NHL and WHA, and one of just three players on both Canadian Summit Series teams, passed away today at the age of 79.
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International Hockey Lineal Championship 