The 1990 IIHF Women's World Championships was an international women's ice hockey competition held at Civic Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (now renamed TD Place Arena) from March 19 to 25, in 1990.[1] This was the first IIHF-sanctioned international tournament in women's ice hockey and is the only major international tournament in women's ice hockey to allow bodychecking.[2] Full contact bodychecking was allowed with certain restrictions near the boards. The intermissions between periods were twenty minutes instead of fifteen.[3] This has since[when?] been changed to the usual fifteen minutes.
Canada's Fran Rider helped to organize the championships without the financial support from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (now known as Hockey Canada).[4]
The tournament drew strong international attention. The gold medal game packed 9,000 people into the arena and drew over a million viewers on television.[citation needed] For marketing purposes, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association decided the Canadian national team should wear pink and white uniforms instead of the expected red and white[5] and released a related film called, "Pretty in Pink". 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.[5]
TOI = Time On Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts Source: whockey.com
This is the only major international tournament in women's ice hockey to allow bodychecking.[2] Bodychecking rules allowed for full-contact checking, with certain limitations along the boards.[7]
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, with contact having already been banned at all national women's ice hockey tournaments in Canada in 1983 due to the efforts of Rhonda Leeman Taylor.[8] However, the European teams had asked for bodychecking to be included in the 1990 international tournament.[2]
[Cammi] Granato said that the women's game, "without the checking, can't get too out of hand." She recalled how, in the 1990 world championships, checking was allowed for the first few games and the Americans looked forward to it. "We were psyched," Granato said. "Then we faced some of the European teams and said, 'Wow, these guys are strong and they know how to hit.' There were a couple head injuries right away and they took it out. There is too much of a size difference. It was kind of a trial and error. And then they took it out entirely."[9]
— Joe Lapointe, "OLYMPICS: WOMEN'S HOCKEY; Contact Is a Hard-Hitting Question to Consider", The New York Times (Feb. 17, 2002)
A number of players suffered head injuries from the beginning of the tournament.[9] Finland's Kirsi Hirvonen was "carried away with a neck injury after being cross-checked." U.S. team captain Tina Cardinale-Beauchemin's right forearm and elbow, "were a mass of purple-and-blue welts, courtesy of a slash early in the tournament." Canada's France Saint-Louis, "spent three days in a hospital after taking a stick across the throat".[11][7]
^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
Canada
United States
Finland
Sweden
West Germany
Japan
Switzerland
Norway
Canada