Ice Hockey

Sport Overview

Ice Hockey at Milano Cortina 2026

Venues: Milano Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena, Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena

Competition Dates: February 5-22 (Days -1-16)

Events: 2 (1 men, 1 women)

In its basic form, hockey is a game played on ice in which teams try to score in their opponent’s goal, using curved sticks to move the rubber puck. Five players and one goalkeeper are on the ice for a team at any one time, with substitutions coming from the bench.

A regulation game consists of three 20-minute periods with two 15-minute intermissions. At the Olympic Games, no games can end in a tie, so deadlocks are broken by a four-on-four overtime period or, if needed, a shoot-out. Overtime is five minutes for group stage games and 10 minutes for all playoff games, except for the gold medal game which has a 20-minute overtime.

At Milano Cortina 2026 the men’s tournament will have 12 teams divided into three groups:

Group A: Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy

Group B: Finland, Germany, Czechia, Denmark

Group C: United States, Slovakia, Latvia, Russia*

*If the IIHF ban on Russia remains in place, France would be qualified instead and the groups would be re-shuffled to reflect the new seeding

The tournament begins with a round robin within each group. No teams are eliminated from medal contention based on the preliminary round results. The three group winners and the second place team with the best record receive a bye into the quarterfinals. The remaining eight teams are re-seeded for qualification playoff games. The winners of those four qualification playoff games advance to the quarterfinals to face one of the teams that received a bye. Quarterfinal winners advance to the semifinals. Semifinal winners advance to play for gold and silver while the semifinal losers play for bronze.

At Milano Cortina 2025 the women’s tournament will have 10 teams divided into two groups:

Group A: Canada, United States, Finland, Czechia, Switzerland

Group B: Russia*, Qualifier 1, Qualifier 2, Qualifier 3, Italy

*If the IIHF ban on Russia remains in place, the highest-ranked unqualified team from the Final Olympic Qualification Tournaments will be qualified instead  

The tournament begins with a round robin within each group. Organized into two tiers, Group A consists of teams ranked 1-5 by the IIHF while Group B has the teams ranked 6-10. All the teams from Group A advance from the preliminary round along with the top three teams from Group B. The winners of the four quarterfinal games advance to the semifinals. The semifinal winners advance to play for gold and silver while the semifinal losers play for bronze.

Canadian Olympic Ice Hockey History (pre-Milano Cortina 2026)

With 23 medals, including 14 gold, Canada is the most successful country in Olympic ice hockey.

Canada won the men’s tournament at six of the first seven Olympic Games in which ice hockey was included, beginning with the sport’s debut during the summer Games at Antwerp 1920.

There was a 50-year gold medal drought after Oslo 1952 until the next gold was won at Salt Lake City 2002. But the next wait was much shorter, with back-to-back men’s gold medals at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014. Shea Weber, Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby, Drew Doughty, Ryan Getzlaf, Rick Nash, Duncan Keith, Roberto Luongo, Patrick Marleau and Corey Perry were all members of those last two gold medal teams. Canada won bronze at PyeongChang 2018.

Canada has never missed the podium in the women’s Olympic hockey tournament since it debuted at Nagano 1998. After a silver at those first Games, Canada won four straight gold medals, making Hayley Wickenheiser and Jayna Hefford the two most decorated athletes in the sport. Caroline Ouellette joined them on all four gold medal teams.

After another silver at PyeongChang 2018, Canada claimed its fifth Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey at Beijing 2022. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin became the first ice hockey player—male or female—to score in four Olympic gold medal games.

Olympic Ice Hockey History

Ice hockey has been an Olympic sport longer than the Olympic Winter Games have existed after being first included at Antwerp 1920. It has since been featured at every edition of the Olympic Winter Games, starting with Chamonix 1924. There was only a men’s tournament until a women’s tournament was added at Nagano 1998.