One of the more popular sports at the 2022 Winter Olympics will be ice hockey. Play will begin on Feb. 3 with the women’s preliminary round. The men’s tournament follows and begins on Feb. 9.

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This year’s men’s tournament will feature NHL players again. The NHL Players’ Association and the league renewed their collective bargaining agreement back in July of 2020. In that agreement was the possibility of NHL players playing in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. In early September, an agreement was reached to allow NHL players to compete.

Here’s a look at the tournaments – both men’s and women’s – the teams involved, venues, and the Olympic ice hockey schedule.

2022 Winter Olympics Men’s Hockey Tournament Preview

The men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament will feature 12 teams. Eight of those qualified by their ranking in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Three teams made it via qualifying tournaments and the final team is from the host country, China.

As is typical, three groups of four teams will compete to determine qualification seeding. The groups are as follows:

Group A: Canada, United States, Germany, China

Group B: ROC (Russia), Czech Republic, Switzerland, Denmark

Group C: Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Latvia

Men’s preliminary play will continue from Feb. 9 through Feb. 13. Each team plays the other three teams in their group. The top team in each group and the team with the next-best record receive a bye to the quarterfinals. The bottom eight teams play a four-game qualification round and the four winners advance to the quarterfinals which take place on Feb. 16.

The men’s bronze medal game is set for Saturday, Feb. 19, with the gold medal game scheduled for the following day, Saturday, Feb. 20.

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2022 Winter Olympics Women’s Hockey Tournament

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games women’s ice hockey tournament will feature ten teams for the first time ever. Six qualified through their IIHF world ranking, three through qualifying tournaments, and the tenth team is China, the Olympic host.

The women’s tournament places the ten teams into two groups for preliminary round play. Those groups are as follows:

Group A: United States, Canada, Finland, ROC (Russia), Switzerland

Group B: Japan, China, Qualifier 1, Qualifier 2, Qualifier 3

The final three teams to qualify will be determined via qualifying tournaments that remain to be played prior to the Olympics in February. Those tournaments are scheduled for November 11 through 14.

All five teams in Group A advance to the quarterfinals as well as the top three teams in Group B. The women’s quarterfinals will begin on Feb. 11 with the semifinals set for Feb. 14. The women’s bronze medal game will be played on Wednesday, Feb. 16, and the gold medal game is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 17.

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