   ice hockey is a team sport played on ice in which two teams of skaters use sticks to shoot a hard rubber hockey puck into their opponent's net to score points. in some countries such as canada, the united states, and some european countries such as latvia and sweden, it is often known simply as "hockey"; the name "ice hockey" is more used in countries where "hockey" generally refers to field hockey or both sports are almost as popular (such as south american, asian, australasian, and some european countries like germany, the netherlands, spain and the united kingdom). ice hockey teams usually consist of four lines of three forwards, three pairs of defencemen, and two goaltenders. five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team. each team has a goaltender who tries to stop the puck from going into the goal. a fast-paced physical sport (leading to the nickname "the fastest game on earth," hockey is most popular in areas of north america (particularly canada and northern parts of the united states) and europe. in north america, the national hockey league (nhl) is the highest level for men's hockey and the most popular. ice hockey is the official national winter sport of canada,national sports of canada act where the game enjoys immense popularity. worldwide, there are ice hockey federations in 73 countries. the sport is believed to be an off-shoot of stick and ball games invented elsewhere, particularly the games of the 1700s and 1800s in the united kingdom. these games were brought to canada and the united states and several similar winter games, such as "shin
Former_Summer_Olympic_sports Hockey Ice_hockey Ice_skating National_symbols_of_Canada Sports_originating_in_Canada Team_sports Variations_of_hockey Winter_Olympic_sports Winter_sports