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.[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]
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. The European teams, knowing that they were less competitive than the North American teams, asked for bodychecking to be included.[5] For some reason, the Europeans failed to realize 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 were used to playing a rougher game. This added to the already significant mismatch between the squads.[citation needed]
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, ISBN 0-929005-79-1
Canada
United States
Finland
Sweden
West Germany
Japan
Switzerland
Norway
Canada