restart play after it has been stopped.
The hockey stick is the players’ main
tool. Hockey sticks are made from a
variety of materials, such as wood or
aluminum. A hockey stick is a long shaft
with a flat-faced surface, called a blade,
at one end. Players use the blade to hit
the puck. The puck is 3 inches (7.6 centimeters)
across and 1 inch (2.5 centimeters)
thick.
Hockey players wear helmets and heavy
padding to protect their bodies. The
goalkeepers, or goalies, wear extra pads
and gloves. They also wear special masks
over their faces. The skates that players
wear are specially designed for hockey.
Playing the Game
A hockey game is divided into three
periods that are 20 minutes each. The
game starts with a face-off in the center
of the rink. During the face-off an official
drops the puck between two opposing
players. The players then use their sticks
to try to get control of the puck for their
team.
The team that gets the puck starts an
offensive attack. The players may handle
the puck only with their sticks. They can
move the puck themselves or pass it to
teammates. They try to get the puck to a
player who has a good shot at the opponent’s
goal. Hitting the puck into the
goal scores one point.
There are limits on how a team may
send the puck down the ice. For
example, a player may not cross the blue
line near the opponent’s goal until after
the puck crosses the line. If this happens,
the officials stop play. The game
starts again with a face-off.
The rinks for international hockey and the National Hockey League (NHL) are similar.
However, an NHL rink is narrower than an international rink.
68 Hockey, Ice BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
The team that does not have the puck
tries to get it. Its players poke their stick
at the puck. They try to steal passes and
to block shots. Players often take the
puck away from an opponent by using a
hit to the body, called a check. But some
kinds of body contact are against the
rules. For example, a player cannot
check another player from behind. This
is called a penalty. Players who commit
penalties sit in a penalty box, usually for
2 minutes. During this time their team
plays one player short.
The players on a hockey team have different
positions, or roles. In general, a
team has a goalkeeper (usually called a
goalie), two defensive players, and three
forwards. The goalie tries to keep the
puck out of his team’s goal. The main
job of the defensive players is to assist
the goalie. The forwards mostly try to
score goals.
History
Ice hockey developed in Canada from
games played with sticks and a ball. The
first use of a puck was recorded in 1860.
In 1875 students at McGill University
in Montreal, Quebec, played the first
known indoor ice hockey game.
The International Ice Hockey Federation
was started in Europe in 1908. Ice
hockey became an event in the Olympic
Games in 1920.Women’s ice hockey
was added to the Olympics in 1998.
In North America the National Hockey
League (NHL) was created in 1917. The
NHL has professional teams from
Canada and the United States. At the
end of each NHL season, the league’s
best team is awarded the Stanley Cup.
#More to explore
Olympic Games • Skating
Hohokam
Culture
The Hohokam culture was one of the
first great Native American civilizations
in what is now the United States. The
Hohokam people lived in what is now
Arizona from about 300 BC to about AD
1400.
The Hohokam got most of their food
from farming. They grew corn, beans,
pumpkins, and squash. They also grew
cotton, which they wove into cloth. The
soil where they lived was dry and sandy.
Rock carvings on a cliff in Phoenix,
Arizona, show two people
hunting animals. The Hohokam
people carved these designs into
the rocks hundreds of years ago.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Hohokam Culture 69
They built wide canals from the Gila
and Salt rivers to their fields so they
would have enough water for farming.
The largest Hohokam settlement is now
known as Snaketown. It is located near
Phoenix, Arizona. Early Hohokam lived
in pit houses. They made these houses
by digging a shallow pit and covering it
with a dome of wood and mud. By
about 1100 the neighboring Anasazi had
taught the Hohokam how to build
homes from bricks made of adobe (sunbaked
clay).
During the early 1400s the Hohokam
abandoned their villages. No one knows
why they left or where they went. The
people of two modern tribes—the Pima
and the Tohono O’odham—are probably
their descendants. The name
Hohokam means “those who have gone”
in the Pima language.
#More to explore
Anasazi • Native Americans • Pima
•Tohono O’odham
Holiday
#see Festival and Holiday.
Holland
#see Netherlands, The.
Holly
Hollies are shrubs and trees with green
leaves and usually red berries. They are
popular around Christmastime in
Europe and North America. Hollies are
often used to make wreaths. There are
about 400 species, or kinds, of holly.
Many of them are evergreens. Evergreens
keep their green color throughout the
year.
Hollies grow in the mild and tropical
regions of North America, South
America, and Asia. Different types of
hollies vary in height and appearance.
