Ice hockey in the United States

Ice hockey in the United States
Ice hockey in the United States
	The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals compete in the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.
Country	United States
Governing body	USA Hockey
National team(s)	Men's national team ; Women's national team
First played	1894
Club competitions
	List Men's:; National Hockey League (Major League) ; American Hockey League (first tier Minor League) ; ECHL (second tier Minor League) ; Federal Prospects Hockey League (third tier Minor League) ; Southern Professional Hockey League (third tier Minor League) ; Women's: ; Professional Women's Hockey League ;
International competitions
	IIHF World Championships ; Winter Olympics ; World Cup ; IIHF Women's World Championship

Ice hockey, referred to in the US simply as "hockey", is a popular sport in the United States. Hockey in the US began in 1894 when the first artificial ice rink was built in Baltimore, Maryland. Now hockey is most popular in regions of the US with cold winter climates, such as the northeast and the upper Midwest. However, since the 1990s, ice hockey has become increasingly popular in the Sun Belt due in large part to the expansion of the National Hockey League to the southeast and southwest US, coupled with the mass relocation of many residents from northern cities with strong hockey support to these Sun Belt locations.