New Zealand NHL Hockey Tournament

Two of the world's biggest ice hockey nations - USA and Canada - will face off in New Zealand for a three-game NHL hockey exhibition series later this year.

Dubbed 'the Cold War' by promoters, the New Zealand tournament will be led by NHL hockey stars Kyle Quincey, of the Colorado Avalanche, and Rob Schremp, of the New York Islanders. Quincey captains the Canadian team and Schremp skippers USA.

A fully portable NHL-spec hockey arena will travel with the teams for the tournament in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin New Zealand in late July and early August. The hockey arena is being brought over from Europe for the exhibition series.

The NHL hockey players will also take in some of the New Zealand South Island sites while here, travelling by road between the Christchurch and Dunedin games, via Queenstown.

New Zealand NHL Hockey Tournament Tickets

Adult tickets for the tournament will range between $80 and $203 in Auckland, $79 and $199 in Christchurch and will be $65 in Dunedin.

Ice Hockey is a massive sport for the Americans and Canadians, sparking a strong rivalry between the two nations, which, most recently, came to head in the gold medal match at last year's Winter Olympics. Canada won 3-2 in knuckle-biting overtime play; it was only the second time in Olympic history that the final had gone into extra time.

Although not such a high-profile sport in New Zealand, the Kiwis have still been members of the International Ice Hockey Federation since 1977. The New Zealand men's team - represented in Division 2 - is ranked 40th out of 49 in world rankings and the women's team comes in at 30th out of 34.