Irish Ice Hockey League Irish Ice Hockey Association announced the formation of an all new, all-Ireland Ice Hockey League. The five teams play all of their regular season games at the Dundalk Ice Dome. The league's inaugural champions were the Dundalk Bulls who won the championship by defeating the Dublin Rams 6-3. Prior to the Irish Ice Hockey League's formation, the only Ice Hockey team in Ireland playing competitive hockey was the Belfast Giants of the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League. Many Irish hockey players seeking to play the sport at a competitive level have had to travel abroad. Irish Ice Hockey League The
Germany men's national ice hockey team Germany men's national ice hockey team The German men's national ice hockey team first participated in serious international competition at the 1911 European Hockey Championship. When Germany was split after World War II, a separate East Germany national ice hockey team existed until 1990. By 1991, the East German teams and players were merged into the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund association. The team is not considered to be as elite as Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden or the United States, but they are ranked 8th in the world (2017) by the IIHF. Since re-unification, their best recent results include