Ice hockey is a very exciting fast moving game. There are six players on a side, which means there are three forwards, two defence men and a goalie. I think it’s similar to soccer, but more intense and faster, because it’s played on ice which is a fast-moving surface.

The game lasts sixty minutes, and there are three periods of twenty minutes each.

Some people don’t like hockey criticize it for being too violent because you’re allowed to hit the other players under certain conditions. Not random violence, but the person…the player carrying the puck he can, what’s called ‘check him’, and that’s kind of like hitting him, but there’s only certain ways you can hit him. And there’s..erm… a tendency for fighting, but it’s only some…some teams are more violent than others and it’s just part of the game. If…if a player ‘checks’ another player illegally he gets a penalty, and that means he’s taken off the ice for two minutes, or maybe even five minutes, and the other team will have a man advantage, and that would be called a ‘power play’ . And obviously if you’re in a power play, you’re have a good chance of scoring a goal. So that minimises the violence.

Hockey is most popular in North America, in…in… Canada but also very popular in the northern part of the U.S.A. …erm…the boarder states. But it’s also very popular in certain other..er…countries in Europe. It’s very popular in Sweden, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic…erm…Belarus Many of these countries are equal to …er..Canada, United States in popularity.

Glossary

side/team = equipo
forward = delantero
defence = defensa
goalie = portero
period = tiempo
to hit = golpear
random = fortuto, casual
tendency = tendencia