The word hockey comes from old French "hocquet" which meant "stick". The origins of ice hockey are unclear, but it's widely accepted that the British are responsible for bringing hockey to North America. Soldiers stationed in Nova Scotia, Canada, played the earliest games. In 1879, a group of college students at McGill University in Montreal organised competitions and had developed the first known set of hockey rules.

The sport migrated south to the United States during the 1890s. The first known hockey games took place between Johns Hopkins and Yale Universities in 1895.

The first Olympic Games to include ice hockey for men took place in 1920 in Antwerp. However, the first Olympic Winter Games took place in 1924 in Chamonix.

A team must not have more than six players on the ice while play is in progress. Typically, those players are one goal-tender, two defence men, two wings and one centre. A lesser amount of players can be on the ice as a result of penalties; a goal-tender can be replaced by a skater during a delayed penalty or at any other time of the game at a team's risk.

A regular game consists of three 20 min periods, with a 15 min intermission after the first and second periods. Teams change ends for each period. If a tie occurs in a medal-round game in which a winner must be determined, a 10 min sudden-death overtime period will be played subsequent to another 15 min intermission.