The game schedules of the ice hockey tournaments at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games have been unveiled on Thursday.

58 games will be played during 18 days in Beijing when the Chinese capital will become the first city to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Ice hockey will be played at two large arenas that are a legacy of the 2008 Olympics.

Click here for the full game schedules: Men / Women

Women’s tournament makes the start

Ice hockey at the Olympics will start one day before the opening ceremony with the Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament that will run from 3 to 17 February 2022. The tournament will for the first time be played with ten teams. Similar to the Women’s Worlds they will be seeded in two tiered groups of five teams.

The top-five teams – USA, Canada, Finland, ROC and Switzerland – will play in Group A. Japan, host China and three qualifiers to be determined will play in Group B. The three qualifiers will become known in November when the Final Olympic Qualification tournaments will be held in the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden. The quarter-finals will consist of the five Group A teams and the top-3 Group B teams.

The tournament will start on 3 February with China playing the highest seeded qualifier at Wukesong Sports Centre. The arena that previously hosted NHL and KHL games will serve as the main venue for the women’s tournament, hosted basketball during the 2008 Olympics and can accommodate 14,614 spectators for ice hockey.

The first day of action will also include Switzerland vs. Canada, Finland vs. USA and Japan taking on a qualifier.

The preliminary round with four games for each team will take place from 3 to 8 February followed by the quarter-finals 11-12 February, the semi-finals on 14 February, the bronze medal game on 16 February and culminating with the gold medal game on 17 February.

Men’s tournament starts on 9 February

The Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament will run from 9 to 20 February and similar to most of the Olympics since 1998 be played including NHL player participation.

The tournament will start on 9 February with defending champion ROC playing Switzerland and Czech Republic vs. Denmark.

The 12-team tournament will be played according to the format of the previous Olympic men’s ice hockey tournaments in three groups with Canada, the United States, Germany and China in Group A, ROC, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Denmark in Group B, and Finland, Sweden, Slovakia and Latvia in Group C.

The preliminary round will be played from 9 to 13 February with three games for each team. For the final round the 12 teams will be seeded according to their preliminary-round records with the top-four teams (group winners and the best second-place team) automatically qualified for the quarter-finals on 16 February while the other eight teams will play a qualification playoff game on 15 February for a spot in the quarter-finals.

The semi-finals are scheduled for 18 February followed by the bronze medal game on 19 February and the gold medal game on 20 February.

Most games of the men’s tournament will be held at the 18,826-seat National Indoor Stadium that was constructed for the 2008 Olympics and sometimes nicknamed The Fan with the architecture resembling a traditional folding fan. In 2008 gymnastics, handball and trampolining events were held and in January it got its ice sheet for the Winter Olympics. The ice sheets at both arenas and the practice venues will be 60 on 26 metres.