<P> After five consecutive Olympic tournaments in which the National Hockey League (the world's premier professional league) allowed its players to participate in the Olympics and adjusted its schedule to accommodate the tournament, the NHL announced in 2017 that it would prohibit any player under NHL contract, including those not actually playing for an NHL team, from participating in the Olympics . The NHL secured the cooperation of the International Ice Hockey Federation and the IOC ensuring that nations would not be allowed to ask NHL players to participate . </P> <P> Unlike the NHL, a vast majority of European leagues accommodated an Olympic break, headlined by Russia - based KHL's 33 - day break, Sweden - based Swedish Hockey League's 14 - day break, Switzerland - based National League's 25 - day break, German - based Eishockey Liga's 26 - day break, Czech Republic - based Extraliga's 18 - day break and Slovakia - based Tipsport liga's 14 - day break . Conversely, Finland - based SM - liiga accommodated a 10 - day - break . However, Liiga allowed its top players to leave their clubs and participate in the Olympics . </P> <P> The Russian national team, competing under the name of the Olympic athletes from Russia (OAR), won the gold medal, defeating the German national team with a score of 4 - 3 in overtime in the final . </P> <P> Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, United States, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Slovakia qualified as the top eight teams in the IIHF World Ranking in 2015 . </P>

Who won the gold medal in hockey 2018