Twenty teams (twelve men and eight women) have qualified through IIHF qualifying tournaments. Now it is time for the real thing.
The men's ice hockey tournament first began at Antwerp 1920 in the summer Olympics, but since Chamonix 1924, has been a part of the winter Olympics. Canada and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) have the most gold medals with seven each, including Canada's wins against the US at both Salt Lake City 2002 as well as the overtime thriller at Vancouver 2010, where Sidney Crosby scored the game winner. This will be the fifth winter Olympics that the IIHF has adopted the knockout tournament format, a much easier format compared to the round robin formats of before. With twelve teams present, some if not most of these rosters do play here in North America in the NHL, only eight move on to the knockout stage.
With that in mind...the 12 teams that qualified in the men's ice hockey tournament:
GROUP A
Russia (host country)
Slovakia
Slovenia
United States
GROUP B
Austria
Canada
Finland
Norway
GROUP C
Czech Republic
Latvia
Sweden
Switzerland
As you can see here, this is Slovenia's first qualification in the winter Olympics tournament. The first connection to the former Yugoslavia to do so since Sarajevo 1984, where Yugoslavia, as hosts, classified 11th overall. Also note the surprises here, no Germany or Belarus in the tournament as they were big disappointments. Even Kazakhstan, France, even Italy as well.
On the women's side, this will be the fifth winter games that women's ice hockey will be a part of. At Nagano 1998, USA Hockey defeated Canada 3-1, and since then, Hockey Canada's women have won the next three, starting with a rematch with the US at Salt Lake City. They are the defending women's ice hockey champions after their 2-0 win over the US in Vancouver.
Eight teams have qualified for the women's tournament, however, notice group A's placement:
GROUP A
Canada
Finland
Switzerland
United States
GROUP B
Russia (host)
Germany
Japan
Sweden
Yes folks, US and Canada in group A! Two favorites to win are in the same group in round robin play...hmmm...
As far as individual achievements, six players on the men's side and eight on the women's side have three gold medals each, the most by an individual in this event.
The Bolshoi Dome (above in picture) and Shayba Arena are the ice hockey venues for Sochi.
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