First indoor hockey game

The first hockey game in a hall took place on March 3, 1875. Venue was the Victoria Skating Rink in the Canadian city of Montreal. Organizer of the match was James Creighton, a graduate of McGill University. It involved two teams of nine players each. For the first time ever gets a wooden puck used. The equipment consisted of skates and thugs who would otherwise have been used for Shinny - an informal variant of open-air ice hockey, which was then widely used in Nova Scotia, Creighton's home. The encounter was in 2002 recognized by the Internation Ice Hockey Federation as the first game in a hall since several features of the modern game originated.

Venue

The Victoria Skating Rink, an ice skating rink in Montreal, was a long-drawn two-storey building with a domed roof, which stretched across the entire width of the ice field. High round-arched window illuminated the interior in daylight, 500 gas lamps allowed to skate in the evening. Later they changed this with electric lights, making the Victoria Skating Rink was the first public building in Canada with electric lighting. The ice surface was 204 feet ( 62.18 m) long and 80 feet ( 24.38 m) wide. So she was only slightly shorter and narrower than the playing fields used today in the National Hockey League. Surrounded was the ice rink of a 10 foot ( 3.48 m) wide platform, which was increased by about a foot and stand on the viewer or skaters could rest. At a later date you added a gallery with a " Royal Box" added for dignitaries.

Built in 1862, Hall was located on the Rue Drummond in Anglophone dominated part of the city, in the neighborhood of McGill University. This area, known as the " Square Mile " today, was very wealthy and then the preferred residential area of the English factory owners and businessmen. One block north-east was Dominion Square, where in the winter took place outdoor sporting events. The Windsor Hotel is located in this square was the center of social life and meeting various sports organizations for many years.

The game

James Creighton, a member of the Victoria Skating Club and Figure Skating Judge, began in 1873 to organize informal meetings where club members and friends of the University of shinny played. This early, derived from Shinty open-air version of hockey was used in Creighton's home Nova Scotia and came out without a fixed set of rules. For example, there was usually no goalkeeper, the team sizes were variable and there were balls used. The unusual venue and the fixed size of the ice field required the development of new rules.

On March 3, 1875 Creighton organized a game in the lobby of the Victoria Skating Club. It is now generally known as first ice hockey game in a hall. Several factors contributed to the modern ice hockey crucial to characterize: Involved were two teams ( each with nine players ), goalkeepers and referees. The playing time was limited to 60 minutes and there was an official result. To avoid injury to spectators and damage to the glass windows, they played with a wooden puck instead of a lacrosse ball - maybe it was the first time that such an object was used. The two teams consisted of club members and some students of McGill University. Sticks and skates were purchased in Nova Scotia. To announce the first game, an advertisement appeared in the Montreal Gazette:

Victoria Rink - This evening will be held a hockey game at the Victoria Skating Rink between two teams of nine from among the club members. Much fun can be expected, as some of the players are highly experienced in this game to be. Among the expected viewers some concerns have been raised that accidents could probably be done by the lively flying ball and onlookers of impending danger are eye sets. But we know that the game will be played with a flat, round piece of wood, so that any risk that it leaves the surface of the ice, is banned. Subscribers are admitted on presentation of their cards.

The following day appeared in the same newspaper, the first game:

HOCKEY - Yesterday evening gathered a large audience in the Rink in order to monitor a new competition on the ice. The hockey game on ice, though in New England and other parts of the United States very much in vogue, is not very well known here, hence the event last night was awaited with great interest. Hockey is usually played with a ball, but yesterday a flat wooden block, in order to avoid accidents, used, so that he slipped on the ice without lifting. In a way, the game is similar to lacrosse - the block needs to happen in the same way as the rubber ball by two flags that are placed about 8 feet from each other. The players last night were eighteen in number - nine on each side - and were as follows: - Messrs. Torrance (Captain), Meagher, Potter, Goff, Barnston, Gardner, Griffin, Jarvis and Whiting. Creighton (Captain), Campbell, Campbell, Esdaile, Joseph, Henshaw, Chapman, Powell and Clouston. The match was an interesting and fairly fought affair, the efforts of the players provoked much amusement as they circled each other and dodging. Despite the brilliant game of Captain Torrance's team, was captain Creighton's team the victory that won two games in a Game of the Torrance - nine. The game was stopped at half past nine, and the spectators dressed, with the entertainment of the evening very happy to return.

The discharging a hockey game in the hall and the smaller dimensions of the playing field had extensive changes from the outdoor variant result. The size of the teams was limited to nine players. Up to this time there was no prescribed number of players in outdoor games. There were more or less as many people involved as fit on a frozen pond or river, often dozens. The team size of nine players remained until the 1880s, when it was reduced at the tournament of the Montreal Winter Carnival.

Not in the Gazette, but elsewhere it was reported over a brawl after the game. It was not the opponents on the ice, which fought one another. Rather, the dispute between the players, spectators and members of the Skating Club broke out. The club members were against the use of the hall for ice hockey games, as this took away other skating activities and time affected the quality of the ice. According to the Daily British Whig from Kingston ( Ontario) " shins and heads battered, benches smashed and the ladies in the audience fled in confusion. " Were

Recognition by the IIHF

In July 2002, the International Ice Hockey Federation ( IIHF ) " announced that it would make the location of the former hall marked with a commemorative plaque or other marking of historic sites to passersby to the existence of the Victoria Skating Rink, the birthplace of organized hockey to remember. " On 22 May 2008, the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled at the nearby Centre Bell two memorial plaques, reminiscent of the game and to James Creighton. In addition, the IIHF Victoria Cup was starting, had a named after the venue trophy that is played between the winners of the European Champions Hockey League, and a representative of the National Hockey League.

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