There was strong international attention directed at the games. The gold medal game packed 9000 people into the arena and drew over a million viewers on television. 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.[1] 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.[1]
The United States and Canadian teams qualified automatically.[2] A tournament in Asia took place between Korea, Japan, China, India and Hong Kong. Japan won the tournament.[2]
This is the only major international tournament in Women's ice hockey to allow bodychecking.[3] Before the tournament, bodychecking had been allowed in women's ice hockey in Europe. The European teams, knowing that they were less competitive than the North American teams, asked for bodychecking to be included.[3] For some reason, the Europeans failed to realize the fact that while European women learned to play with other women, most North American players learned to play with men. Consequently, North American players were bigger than European players and used to playing a rougher game. This added to the already significant mismatch between the squads.
After this tournament, the International Ice Hockey Federation disallowed bodychecking in women's ice hockey.[3] It is currently an infraction punished with a minor or major and game misconduct penalty.[4]
In addition, the intermission between periods were twenty minutes instead of fifteen.[2] This has since been abolished and changed to the usual fifteen minutes.
China
Canada
Sweden
Federal Republic of Germany
United States of America
Finland
Switzerland
Norway
