The 1990 IIHF World Women's Championships were held March 19 to 25, 1990, at the Civic Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The Canadian team won the gold medal, the United States won silver, and Finland won bronze. This was the first IIHF-sanctioned international tournament in women's ice hockey. Fran Rider helped to organize the championships with no financial support from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.[1]
There was strong international attention directed at the games. The gold medal game packed 9,000 people into the arena and drew over a million viewers on television.[citation needed] For unknown reasons, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association decided that the Canadian team should wear pink and white uniforms instead of the expected red and white.[2] While the experiment only lasted for this tournament, Ottawa was taken over by a "pink craze" during the championships. Restaurants had pink-coloured food on special, and pink became a popular colour for flowers and bow ties.[2]
TOI = Time On Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots Against; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; Sv% = Save Percentage; SO = Shutouts Source: whockey.com
Bodychecking[]
This is the only major international tournament in women's ice hockey to allow bodychecking.[5] Before the tournament, bodychecking had been allowed in women's ice hockey in Europe and North America though Canada had begun to gradually eliminate the tactic from their women's ice hockey programs in the mid-1980's. The European teams asked for bodychecking to be included.[5]
After this tournament, the International Ice Hockey Federation disallowed bodychecking in women's ice hockey.[5] It is currently[when?] an infraction punished with a minor or major and game misconduct penalty.[6]
In addition, the intermissions between periods were twenty minutes instead of fifteen.[3] This has since[when?] been changed to the usual fifteen minutes.
^On the Edge: Women Making Hockey History, p.81, by Elizabeth Etue and Megan K. Williams, Second Story Press, Toronto, Ontario, 1996, ISBN0-929005-79-1