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Ice Hockey – World’s Fastest Team Sport
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- The IIHF World Championship will take place in Cologne, Mannheim, and Gelsenkirchen.
- (© The IIHF World Championship )
Ice hockey fascinates countless sports fans the world over due to its dynamism, pace, and impressive duels. While the world’s best ice hockey league is certainly the North American NHL, ice hockey is also gaining popularity and fans in Germany. German Ice Hockey League games are now among the country’s most favorite team sporting events, surpassed only by handball and, of course, soccer. In May 2010, Germany will host the IIHF World Championship.
The sport’s beginnings alone reveal that it is not a purely American sport. It is not definitively known where ice hockey was actually born, but countries such as England, Sweden, Holland, France, and, above all, Canada would have us believe it originated in their countries. For example, today’s ice hockey bares similarities with both the Scandinavian Brandy sport and the British Shinney. The term “hockey” comes French and roughly means “crooked stick.” What is certain, however, is that, from the start, ice hockey was a sport of many international influences which rapidly spread across national borders.
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- The Eisbären Berlin defeated the DEG Metro Stars Duesseldorf to win the DEL title in the 2008/2009 season.
- (© picture-alliance / Sven Simon)
The Ontario Hockey Association was the first organized ice hockey league and was founded in 1890 by four clubs in Kingston. Within a short time, ice hockey spread to the United States. In 1917, the National Hockey League (NHL) was born.
But ice hockey has also been played in Germany for over 100 years. The first documented hockey game on German soil took place in 1887, on Halen Lake in Berlin. The Berlin Academic Sport Club played against a mixed team made up of students. In 1901, the first ice hockey department was established within the Berlin ice-skating club and, in 1908, ice hockey was adopted as a division within the German Association of Ice Sports. In 1910, a German team participated for the first time in a European championship and managed to take second place behind England. With a bronze medal win, a German team was able to gain the greatest success to date at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck. Currently, the German national team ranks 12th among the world’s ice hockey teams.
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- Goalie Jean-Marc Pelletier of the Hamburg Freezers
- (© picture-alliance / Sven Simon )
As in most European countries, some of the players are native to the country for which they play while others are foreigners, among them many North Americans. For example, during the 2008/09 season, the Canadian Jason Ulmer became the German league’s star scorer, the American Jean-Marc Pelletier became the second best goalkeeper, and the Canadian Todd Warriner achieved the most penalty minutes. While many North American professional hockey players are in the German DEL, some Germans have also experienced fame and fortune within the NHL. Among them are Marco Sturm, Jochen Hecht, Christoph Schubert, Olaf Kölzig, and Uwe Krupp, who helped write a piece of Stanley Cup history when he scored the winning goal at the 1996 Stanley Cup finale between Colorado and Florida. The game had already gone into overtime when his shot from the blue line helped the Colorado Avalanche achieve its first Stanley Cup win in the franchise’s history. Seven German players are currently playing in the NHL in the 2009-2010 season. In tribute to the many European fans and to support the continent’s interest in ice hockey, the 2009/10 NHL season will open in Europe. In Stockholm, the St. Louis Blues will battle against the Detroit Red Wings, while the Chicago Blackhawks will meet up with the Florida Panthers in Helsinki.
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- German national team player Daniel Kreutzer helps promote The IIHF World Championship, posing for a picture in front of the Veltins Arena.
- (© picture-alliance / Sven Simon )
In May 2010, the world championship will be broadcast from Germany. It is expected to begin with a world record in viewership. The organizations, for example, are expecting approx. 76,000 fans for the opening game when the German national team will take on the national team of the United States on May 7, 2010. It will take place at the arena of the national soccer league club FC Schalke 04, which will temporarily be used for the kickoff game of the championship. To date, the best viewer numbers have reached 74,554 fans, who watched the college game between Michigan and Michigan State at the football stadium in Lansing in October 2001. Already, over 62,000 tickets have been sold so far, thus reaching a milestone in the history of the sporting event. We would also like to welcome you to the 2010 IIHF World Championship to join us in transforming Germany into an ice hockey republic!
