UK and England Rules

Key focus

Play to the IIHF rule book, not the NHL's. When a document gives the IIHF rule, that is your game. Then find out which British layer sits on top: the In-House Rules in most competitions, or the EIHL Casebook in the Elite League.

Wear a neck guard every time you go on the ice, and if it comes off in play, leave the ice without picking it up. Adults included. ⚠️ Under the In-House Rules there is no warning: a missing one is a 10-minute misconduct, and a second ends your game.

Ask your league whether your age group is checking, and do not hit anyone until you know. Your competition's own Rules of Competition sets it, not the rule book. ⚠️ "IHUK runs my league" is not the answer — ask the league you actually play in.

Play as though your first major ends your game, adult or not. The IIHF book ejects automatically on a major for twenty listed fouls (twenty-two in the 2026/27 book) — checking from behind, cross-checking, slashing, high-sticking and a check to the head among them — with no injury needed.

After one misconduct, play as though the next one ends your game. Under the In-House Rules misconducts come from kit as well as fouls — a missing neck guard, a loose chin strap after a team warning, playing on without your helmet — and from a dive.

Keep your wingers out of the faceoff circle until the puck drops, and have a second player ready to take the draw. Under the In-House Rules and in the Elite League alike, most violations cost your centre the dot.

At U12 in IHUK's junior leagues, play on without waiting for an icing or offside whistle, and clear the zone at once when the official calls your team out. Neither whistle comes. ⚠️ Not clearing quickly is a delay-of-game penalty.

Overview

If you play in Britain, your rule book is the IIHF's. Every level runs on it: the National Ice Hockey League, the recreational and junior game across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, women's and university hockey, the GB national teams, and the Elite League. The Elite League's own Casebook says that for every rule it does not mention, "the official 2026 - 2027 IIHF Rulebook and IIHF Situation Handbook will serve as the official ruling." Most hockey writing in English is written to NHL rules. Wherever it gives the IIHF rule, that rule is yours; a USA Hockey or Hockey Canada rule is not.

Seven things set British hockey apart. Five are in the rule books. Two — the checking age and the U12 format — are answered by your competition's own regulations instead.

The neck guard is the sharpest difference from North America. It is mandatory for every player, adults included, and must cover "as much of the neck as possible". Under the In-House Rules — the NIHL, the SNL, women's, recreational, junior and university hockey — a missing one is an immediate 10-minute misconduct with no warning, and a second escalates to a game misconduct. England Ice Hockey extends it to "all on ice activities", practices included, and its reach to Scotland and Northern Ireland is unsettled, so wear it there too. The two British documents disagree on whether a warning comes first, so assume none. If it comes off during play, leave the ice; you may not retrieve it.

The Elite League warns first, then gives a minor, and extends the requirement to warm-ups and practice. The minor is not the ceiling: refuse to put it right and its equipment ladder runs on to a misconduct for coming back out unchanged, and a game misconduct the third time.

Ask your league whether your age group is checking before you hit anyone. Neither the IIHF book nor the In-House Rules sets a checking age, and the North American lines do not transfer. Four IHUK 2026-27 Rules of Competition were read for this document — junior, U10, NIHL Division 1 and 2, and WNIHL. They make junior U10 and U12 non-checking and U14, U16 and U19 checking, NIHL Division 1 and 2 checking, and the WNIHL non-checking at U16 and senior. ⚠️ The line goes with the game you are dressed for, not your birthday: a junior may play up one age group, and from 16 — 15 with approval — into the NIHL, where Divisions 1 and 2 check.

In women's hockey the IIHF book draws its own contact line, at Rule 101.1. If an opponent is standing still, that ice is hers: skate around her, and if you are carrying the puck at her, avoiding the contact is your job. Two players racing for the puck may "push and lean into each other", but only "provided that “possession of the puck” remains the sole object". Any step or glide into an opponent is at least a minor for an illegal hit, and so is using the boards to take her out of the play, push her into them or pin her there. And WNIHL games are non-checking under the WNIHL Rules of Competition.

Those four documents are all that is settled here. They do not reach the EIHL, BUIHA university hockey, NIHL National, the PNIHL, the SNL or other Scottish domestic hockey outside the IHUK junior structure. ⚠️ And "IHUK runs my league" is not the answer — the In-House Rules reach NIHL National, the SNL and BUIHA Varsity, and none of the four covers them. Ask your league, and until you have an answer, do not hit anyone. Body Contact and Battles §If you play in Britain quotes each one.

At U12, play on without waiting for a whistle. Neither rule book describes the game; IHUK's Junior Rules of Competition does. At U12 no icing is called, an offside does not stop play, the lines change on a 60-second buzzer, and a minor is three minutes — four in a four-line game — served on your own line's shifts. ⚠️ An offside not stopping play does not mean you may stay in the zone — when the official calls your team out, not clearing quickly is a delay-of-game penalty. U10 is cross-ice or half-ice; U14 and above is the ordinary full-ice, stop-clock IIHF game. §U12 is a different game, and neither British rule book says so has the detail.

Take the referee's call as the call. There is no on-ice video review in EIH or SIHA competition, and no Coach's Challenge. The Elite League keeps both, so know which competition you are in. Video is still used after the game for supplementary discipline, which can reach incidents nobody penalised at the time.

Keep your wingers out of the circle until the puck drops. Under In-House Rule 76, new for 2026-27, your centre is replaced for almost any faceoff violation, and either centre may put the stick down first — a British departure from the IIHF book. ⚠️ Neither change reaches the Elite League, where the defending centre's stick still goes down first. But there too the IIHF's own 2026/27 book replaces your centre for a teammate's encroachment on most draws. Faceoffs covers what that changes at the dot.

Look at your own rink before you plan around its size. The In-House Rules authorise sheets below 56 m × 26 m at all levels and in all fixtures, with two rinks named for up to U16 only. The IIHF book fixes the length at 60 m and the width at 26 m to 30 m, so an authorised sheet can be shorter, narrower or both. No census of British rink dimensions has been published.

Play as though your first major ends your game, adult or not — and after one misconduct, as though the next one does. IIHF Rule 20.4 ejects automatically on a major for any of twenty listed fouls (twenty-two in 2026/27), including checking from behind, cross-checking, slashing, hooking, high-sticking, slew-footing, clipping and an illegal check to the head, and needs no injury for any of them. It also ejects on a second major or a second misconduct; the NHL waits for a third major. Under the In-House Rules misconducts come from kit as well as fouls — a missing neck guard, a chin-strap gap wider than one finger once your team has been warned for one, playing on after your helmet comes off — and from a dive, priced at a minor plus a 10-minute misconduct.

On top of the IIHF book sits a short layer of local amendment:

The In-House Rules' Introduction says so in terms: "IHUK and the British Universities Ice Hockey Association (BUIHA) adopt the latest IIHF Official Rule Book (Version 1.1, published July 2025) as the foundation for the rules of the game to be applied in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (the Home Countries)."

Ask your league which IIHF edition its officials use, and where the two editions differ, play to the stricter one. The Elite League's Casebook names the 2026/27 book. ⚠️ The In-House Rules contradict themselves, and do not say which half governs. Their cover points to "the Current IIHF Rule Book". Their Introduction names "Version 1.1, published July 2025" — the 2025/26 book — and calls it "the latest", when the newer 2026/27 edition carries the lower number, Version 1.0, June 2026. The differences bite hardest on fighting and high-sticking; §Which IIHF edition you are playing, and where the two differ sets them out.

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Who governs what

In short: Where an older document says EIH or SIH, read IHUK, and treat those older policies as still in force.

England Ice Hockey (EIH) is the governing body for England and Wales, as its own Rules & Regulations say at 1.1, 3.1 and 17.1 — and since the June 2026 merger its policies are IHUK's. It was called the English Ice Hockey Association, and you will still see "EIHA" everywhere — on club sites, in league names, in older documents. Same body.

The Scottish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) governs Scotland, and shares the same In-House Rules document with EIH. You will meet it under two names in the same document: SIHA in the rules themselves, and Scottish Ice Hockey (SIH) in their Introduction and in the phrase "IHUK/EIH/SIH competitions". Same body.

Ice Hockey UK (IHUK) is the national governing body recognised by the IIHF, and runs the GB national teams. Since the merger it is also "⁠[t]he governing body for ice hockey in the United Kingdom" in the In-House Rules' own words, it is IHUK that adopts the IIHF book for domestic play, and games are described there as IHUK-sanctioned where the previous edition said EIH-sanctioned.

The British Universities Ice Hockey Association (BUIHA) runs university hockey and adopts the same In-House Rules. It is the one body named alongside IHUK in the 2026-27 Introduction and did not merge into it.

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Which IIHF edition you are playing, and where the two differ

In short: Read every IIHF rule, especially fighting and high-sticking, in the edition your competition actually plays.

Which IIHF edition these documents quote. Every IIHF rule here is the 2025/26 book's (Version 1.1, July 2025) unless flagged otherwise. The 2026/27 edition differs in real ways — its faceoff rules, for instance, replace the offending centre where the old book warned (see Faceoffs). Only these rules have been checked against it: 1.7, 20.4, 20.5, 28.1, 46, 60, 63.2, 64, 69, 70, 76, 82.2, 87.1 and Appendix IV. ⚠️ Check the current book before you rely on a detail — and in the Elite League, which plays the 2026/27 book, check it every time.

The renumbering is the trap, and Rule 46 (fighting) is where it bites. Every Rule 46 number here is the 2025/26 book's. The 2026/27 book reorders the whole rule, so the same number can mean something else — most sharply third player in, which is 46.7 in 2025/26 and 46.14 in 2026/27, where 46.7 becomes fighting off the playing surface. The other moves: instigator 46.3→46.10, aggressor 46.4→46.2, sucker punch 46.5→46.13, altercation 46.2→46.3, clearing the area of a fight 46.8→46.4, fighting outside the periods 46.9→46.8, fighting off the playing surface 46.11→46.7, helmets 46.12→46.6, fighting prior to the drop of the puck 46.10→46.9, jerseys 46.13→46.11. ⚠️ Look a fighting rule up by its heading, not its number. Even the Elite League's Casebook numbers two of its Rule 46 clauses wrong against the book it adopts (§Fighting).

Appendix IV is renumbered too. The 2026/27 book merges the 2025/26 Tables 5, 6 and 7 into one Table 5, with "MAJOR ONLY" and "MAJOR + GMP" columns covering the same twenty automatic and five discretionary entries, plus two new automatic fighting rows — twenty-two automatic entries in all. Every later table shifts down by two. A table number only resolves in the book it came from — always name the edition.

Several Rule 46 clauses changed in substance, mostly against you. 46.1 inverts the default: the 2025/26 rule text says a willing combatant "may" be ejected (though that book's own table makes it automatic — §Fighting); the 2026/27 rule makes a major plus an automatic game misconduct "the standard penalty" for anyone who fights. A player judged to be defending against an aggressor or instigator can have the game misconduct waived. But the third player in waiver narrowed: it now applies only where an aggressor penalty is imposed in the original altercation and the referee judges the player was "intervening to stop the ongoing altercation with an 'unwilling combatant' and not to start a secondary altercation." ⚠️ So stepping in to break up a fight costs more under the new book — and if the player being set upon is a willing fighter, there is no waiver at all.

The instigator test now reaches back further than one game. The 2026/27 rule looks at "a prior game (or season) incident" and "a previous incident in the game or season". An instigator penalty in the final five minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime also exposes the player to Rule 28 supplementary discipline, and "the player's coach shall also be subject to potential supplemental discipline under Rule 28." ⚠️ So a grudge from a fixture months ago can make you the instigator — a minor, a major and an automatic game misconduct, or in the Elite League a minor, a major and a ten-minute misconduct that becomes a game misconduct late, in overtime, on a second instigation or for an aggressor too (§Fighting).

Two smaller moves. Persisting after being told to stop, or resisting a linesperson, moves to its own clause (46.5) and softens from at least a major plus an automatic game misconduct, at the referee's discretion, to "a misconduct or game misconduct penalty". Sucker-punching's injury test narrows from a punch that "could cause" injury to one that "causes" it, but a sucker-punch is still a major plus an automatic game misconduct.

The 2025/26 book — Britain's — carries the test for whether you are a fighter, in Rule 46.6 Defender – Unwilling Combatant. A player who "defends themself with a 'few punches'" is an unwilling combatant, while "a Player who retaliates to being punched will be assessed at least a minor penalty ('Roughing') or a major penalty ('Fighting', without a game misconduct penalty), if the criteria for 'fighting back' with a few punches is not fulfilled." ⚠️ So punching back beyond a few defensive punches moves you up a tier.

But ⚠️ the 2026/27 book deletes that test — "few punches", "retaliates" and "fighting back" return zero there. It leaves the waiver discretionary — "may be waived at the discretion of the referee" — and names only an aggressor or an instigator, where 2025/26 said a defender shall be considered an unwilling combatant against "an Aggressor, an Instigator / Initiator or a fighter". Read Rule 46 in the edition your competition plays.

Rule 60 (high-sticking) changed in two directions at once. The 2025/26 book calls a high stick one carried above the opponent's shoulders; the 2026/27 book requires contact above the shoulders, where those shoulders are at waist height or higher — narrower. But the double minor widened. The 2025/26 book needs the stick carried high before contact causes injury; the 2026/27 book drops that and reaches injuring contact on the neck, face or head anywhere above the struck player's waist. Both define injury as "in the manner of drawing blood or otherwise", so a bloodless facial injury counts.

So ⚠️ under the new book, a stick never carried high can still be the four-minute double minor if it injures someone. Keep your stick below every opponent's shoulders: contact there is at least a minor in both books, and a reckless one can be a major with an automatic game misconduct (60.4). The IIHF's own published list of changes mentions only the narrower half, so do not rely on it. Shooting sets out the full high-sticking ladder.

The height that counts is measured on the player struck, not on you. The 2026/27 Situation Handbook's Situation 60.13 rules that a stick barely above waist height is still high-sticking if it strikes an opponent bent over the puck in the face — the player "was hit in the neck/face/head with the opponent's stick, at or above the height of the waist of the player being struck." That ruling is 2026/27 only; on Britain's 2025/26 edition there is no published ruling either way. ⚠️ Lift a stick up rather than sideways, low on the shaft, well below the bottom hand, then let go — and never at a player bent over the puck.

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The amendments that change what you do

These are the ones worth knowing before you play. Everything not listed here is enforced in line with the IIHF book.

Neck protection is mandatory, for everyone — and the In-House Rules give no warning

In short: Wear an unaltered neck guard correctly every time you are on the ice, and assume no warning before the penalty.

Under the In-House Rules, "⁠[a] neck laceration protector is mandatory for all players in all IIHF categories and IHUK/EIH/SIH competitions", and "Protectors must be worn correctly, unaltered, and must cover as much of the neck as possible." A guard cut down to fit, or slung loose below the chin, does not satisfy the rule. Enforcement is unusually hard:

• No warning is given. Failing to wear a neck laceration protector is an immediate 10-minute misconduct penalty.
• If your neck protector comes off during play, you must leave the ice and may not retrieve it.
• A second neck-protector violation by the same player is another 10-minute misconduct, which automatically escalates to a game misconduct.
• The neck-protector requirement is not only a game rule. England Ice Hockey's Rules & Regulations 24.3 makes it "mandatory that all players at all levels use an approved Ice Hockey Neck Guard/Protector whilst participating in all on ice activities" — practices and stick-and-puck included.
• Somebody is now required to check your neck protector before the warm-up. In-House Rule 5.4 puts a pre-warm-up equipment check on the coach or manager, who "must verify helmet/facemask fit, chin-strap tightness and neck laceration protection are worn per manufacturer instructions and these rules". The neck protector was added to that check for 2026-27; the check itself is not new.
• Two of IHUK's Rules of Competition carry the neck guard onto the bench. The junior and WNIHL documents make it "mandatory and unaltered from manufacturer spec", and add: "Non-playing junior players may be on the bench only if wearing, at minimum: helmet with full-face protection, neck guard, and upper-body protection. Otherwise, they must leave the bench." The WNIHL says the same of non-playing U16 players, and the junior document adds: "All U19 National Division players must wear full face cages and neck guards for the full season, regardless of being 18+."
• Outside England and Wales and the Elite League, nothing read here puts the neck guard on a player at training. None of the four Rules of Competition extends it to training, and whether the merger carries Rules & Regulations 24.3 to Scotland and Northern Ireland is unsettled (§Who governs what), so play as if it does. The IHUK Coaching Regulations 2026-2027 make a neck guard mandatory in the coach's own on-ice kit, practices included, but name no neck guard among the coach's duties toward players. That is an asymmetry between documents, not a permission. ⚠️ Wear it anyway.

The mandate itself is IIHF Rule 9.12, "⁠[f]or all Players in all categories of IIHF Competition", so it travels with you to any IIHF competition. The In-House Rules change only the enforcement. For seniors, IIHF 9.12 gives "a warning by the Referee" and then a minor, where the In-House Rules give no warning and a 10-minute misconduct. For juniors the IIHF ladder is a team warning and then "a ten minute (10') misconduct penalty", so the domestic rule only drops the warning. Either way it is stricter, never more lenient.

The Elite League writes its own Rule 9.12, and carries it into practice. The EIHL Casebook scopes the mandate to "all categories of EIHL Competition" and keeps the IIHF's softer tier — "after warning by the Referee, a minor penalty shall be imposed" — ⚠️ then adds: "This requirement also applies during warm-ups and practice sessions." ⚠️ Put it right the moment you are told, because the minor is not the ceiling. The Casebook's Rule 9.5 names "neck laceration protection not being properly worn", and its equipment ladder runs on: refuse and it is a minor for Delay of Game, return to the ice unchanged and it is a misconduct, and "⁠[s]hould this happen a third time, the Player shall be issued a game misconduct penalty."

The warm-up is covered everywhere, and refereed in the Elite League. The IIHF book already requires full protective equipment in the pre-game warm-up (Rules 9.5 and 5.6). The Casebook's own versions of those rules drop that wording, and whether the IIHF's survives for an EIHL game neither document says — but it does not change what you do, because the Casebook's Rule 9.12 names warm-ups itself. Its Rule 9.5 also keeps the ban on altering a guard: "The Neck Laceration Protector must be properly worn and must not be modified or alternated in any way."

There, ⚠️ the Casebook's Rule 86.6 puts "the standby referee who oversees the warmup" in charge, and referees may call "all penalties provided for in the rule book from the start of warm-up time until 30 minutes after the end of the game, if they see the offence take place." What officials do not see "may be reviewed after the game by the proper authorities" — in the Elite League, its Rule 28 says, the EIHL Department of Player Safety (DOPS) and EIHL Hockey Operations.

Under the In-House Rules the route is the same without the phrase: their Rule 28 sends supplementary discipline to the home association, "EIH or SIHA", and a later Supplementary Discipline section lets the IHUK Department of Player Safety or the SIHA Disciplinary Committee act on offences "before, during, or after a game". Practice is the part nothing settles: no rule says who enforces the neck guard at a session with no officials. Wear it either way.

University hockey is not exempt. The BUIHA adopts the IIHF book with the In-House Rules as the "overriding interpretation of how the IIHF Rule Book is to be applied domestically", and Rule 9.12 covers "all players in all IIHF categories". ⚠️ Expect the same 10-minute misconduct in a BUIHA game, and wear the guard.

The two British documents disagree on the warning; each has its own precedence clause and neither names the other. In-House Rule 9.12 says "No warning will be given for failing to wear a neck guard", while England Ice Hockey's Rules & Regulations 24.6 (2024-25 edition) treats a first violation as "a warning to the player and bench" before misconduct penalties. R&R 8.2 says EIH's rules "shall take precedence" over another body's, and the In-House Rules call themselves the "overriding interpretation" of the IIHF book. This document follows the current In-House Rules. ⚠️ Wear the neck guard and assume no warning — the conservative reading costs nothing.

North America is narrower: USA Hockey exempts adults, and Hockey Canada's rule covers only minor and female hockey. A British adult reading those would conclude the requirement is not theirs. It is.

The In-House Rules bar on-ice video review — the Elite League keeps it

In-House Rule 37 reads: "On-ice video review is not available in EIH or SIHA competition and may not be used by referees, official scorers, timekeepers, or any other game official." The In-House Rules repeat that bar in nine more provisions across eight rules, from double minors to goals.

The Coach's Challenge goes with it. In-House Rule 38: "As on-ice video review is not available (see Rule 37), a Coach's Challenge is not permitted in EIH or SIHA competition." There is nothing to challenge with, so there is no challenge.

Practically: the referee's call on the ice is the call. The video review you read or hear about is the NHL and international game — and the Elite League, which keeps both. Its Casebook runs video review "in the arena or remotely from the EIHL Situation Room", and lets coaches challenge "at any time throughout the game Regulation time or at any time during Overtime." ⚠️ If you play under EIH or SIHA, the bar above is yours.

"On-ice" matters, though: video is still used after the game. In-House Rule 28 lets a supplementary-discipline case open through "⁠[t]he defined video review process", and a separate Supplementary Discipline section lets the disciplinary body investigate any incident "regardless of whether such offences were penalised by the Referee at the time."

The Elite League publishes its own goaltender-interference criteria

Keep out of the blue paint, and if the goalie is trying to set themselves, give ground. The EIHL Casebook carries an "EIHL Addition to the IIHF Rule Book" on Rule 69, listing the "3 main criteria to consider/answer in making the appropriate decision": "1. Is the goaltender able to play his position? If he is contacted does he have time to recover? 2. Was the contact initiated by the defensive player or the cause of a player from the opposing team? 3. Was the contact made inside (or outside) of the crease? Contact in the blue paint area calls for disallowing a goal."

Read that third answer for what it says: ⚠️ contact in the paint is enough to wipe a goal out, not a line beyond which contact is free. The Casebook calls its criteria an addition, so IIHF Rule 69 still decides the call, and 69.2 tells the referee to weigh "the degree and nature of the relevant contact with the goalkeeper" above "the exact location of the goalkeeper". Rule 69.4 disallows a goal for non-incidental contact an attacker initiates outside the crease: "A goalkeeper is not 'fair game' just because they are outside the goal crease."

And ⚠️ the penalty is yours whether anything goes in or not: deliberate contact is a minor or a major "whether or not the goalkeeper is inside or outside the goal crease, and whether or not a goal is scored". You need not even touch the goalie — stopping a goalie who played the puck outside their crease from getting back to it can be goalkeeper interference on its own.

Nor is the crease only the paint: Rule 1.7 says "⁠[t]he marked line belongs to the Goal Crease", and the crease area "extends vertically until the top of the crossbar". Rules 1.7, 69.3 and 69.4 say the same thing in the 2025/26 and 2026/27 books, so none of this turns on which edition your competition plays.

Under EIH or SIHA the IIHF rule runs unamended, and with no video review a net-front call is decided once, on the ice. The Casebook is updated during the season, so a copy read in the autumn is not necessarily what is in force by February.

Rinks are often smaller than the book says

IIHF Rule 1.2 specifies a sheet "60m long and 26m to 30m wide" — note that 30 m is the top of a range, not the standard. The In-House Rules provide that "⁠[r]inks with a non-standard playing surface (below 56 m × 26 m) are authorised by the NGB for all levels of hockey", with two named rinks permitted only up to U16 — Sutton in England and Coatbridge in Scotland.

The 2026-27 edition widened the authorisation. It dropped a third named rink and changed "This rule applies to all EIH and SIHA fixtures" to "This rule applies to all fixtures", so it now reaches university hockey too. The In-House Rules never mention the Elite League, so nothing here says what applies there.

That threshold sits outside IIHF Rule 1.2 altogether: the book fixes the length at 60 m and makes 26 m its minimum width, so a rink below 56 m × 26 m is outside it — shorter, narrower or both. Rink Map covers the dimensions and the markings.

Time and Space explains what rink size does to the game: on a smaller sheet the distances shrink, the angles do not, and everything arrives sooner. Check your rink before you assume the geometry in any document applies to it.

Facial protection and helmet fit

In short: Wear the face protection your age and competition require, strap it snug, and leave the ice if your helmet comes off or your visor or cage cracks.

• Women's hockey only: In-House Rule 102 says "Players may wear a half visor only from the start of the season following their 18th birthday". That relaxes IIHF Rule 102.1, which requires "full-face protection (full-visor, or cage facial protection)" of every senior woman, and in domestic competition the In-House wording prevails: the In-House Rules are the "overriding interpretation" of the IIHF book at home, and the WNIHL's own rules require "Full-face covering or half visor and mouth guard". ⚠️ Before that season, wear full face; at an IIHF event, 102.1 applies whatever your age. In IHUK junior hockey the question does not arise: every junior from U10 to U19 wears full-face protection, the U19 National Division "regardless of being 18+".
• Wear at least a visor. IIHF Rule 9.7 requires one of every player born after 1974. The Elite League's Casebook drops the birth year, and so does In-House Rule 9.7 for SIHA Recreational or SIHA University hockey, where all players must wear at minimum a half visor "regardless of their date of birth".
• The women's half-visor clause and the SIHA half-visor minimum do not conflict: a woman wears full-face protection until the season after her 18th birthday. A half visor is a floor, and full-face protection clears it. Scottish recreational hockey has no under-18s anyway — no player under 18 may play recreational hockey in Scotland.
• University hockey has its own clause too: "all players in BUIHA games are required to wear a half visor as a minimum." ⚠️ It is a minimum, not a ceiling. BUIHA has no under-18 players, but a non-BUIHA opponent in a challenge match can field one, and that player still needs full-face protection under the IIHF's Under-18 rule.
• Face cages are mandatory in junior hockey in England and Wales — England Ice Hockey's Rules & Regulations 24.5: "Face cages for all junior hockey games are mandatory". IHUK's Junior Rules of Competition list "cage or full visor", but also apply the IIHF rules "with additions set out below and in IHUK/EIH Rules & Regulations – Skaters' Equipment", where the cage rule sits. Nothing read here says whether either reaches a Scottish or Northern Irish junior; where neither does, the IIHF floor is full-face protection of either kind at Under-18. The In-House Rules impose no cage mandate. ⚠️ So as a junior skater anywhere in Britain, 18 or over included, wear a cage — it satisfies every rule here, and a full visor does not meet England Ice Hockey's.
• The gap between chin or neck and chin strap must not exceed 2.5 cm — about one finger. The first offence sends the player off to adjust as a "team warning"; the second is a 10-minute misconduct to whoever commits it, so a teammate's warning can use up yours. The IIHF book only asks that the strap be "properly fastened," so the figure is British.
• If your helmet comes off during play, you must leave the ice immediately. In-House Rule 9.8: "If a player's helmet becomes detached during play, they must immediately leave the ice. Failure to comply will be penalised, with a misconduct penalty, under Rule 12 – Illegal Equipment." ⚠️ Playing on bare-headed is a misconduct, and two misconducts in a game end it. Keep it on in the handshake line too: "⁠[a]ll players must wear a helmet during the handshake line, regardless of age or league", and a bare head there is a misconduct, with a warning to your coach.
• If your visor or cage cracks or breaks during play, leave the ice at once. IIHF Rule 9.7: "A Player whose visor face protection becomes cracked or broken during game action must leave the ice immediately." Rule 202.2 says the same of full-face protection in men's Under-18 hockey, the Elite League's Casebook repeats the visor rule, and the In-House Rules change neither.
• A full cage must have the chin cup fitted and in contact with the chin, "within the helmet's J-clips"; loose or dangling cages and straps are not permitted. Enforcement has its own ladder under In-House Rule 12: the referee sends you off the ice to adjust; returning with the same violation is a "Minor Penalty – Illegal Equipment"; and subsequent violations by the same player are 10-minute misconducts, the second of which is a game misconduct.
• A cage and a helmet that were not sold to go together are Dangerous Equipment. In-House Rule 12: "Helmet–facemask combinations must match manufacturer sizing. Mis-sized combinations are considered Dangerous Equipment, and the player will be removed until corrected." This is the rule that catches second-hand kit, so check the manufacturer's sizing before you put a cage on a helmet you already own — see Equipment.
• Wear a mouthguard — in the Elite League and the WNIHL you must. The EIHL Casebook: "All players participating in the EIHL must properly wear a mouth guard." A cage does not excuse a skater there; only goalies are exempt. If yours comes out in play you may carry on "until the 1st stoppage of play". The WNIHL's own rules make it mandatory too: facial protection "and mouth guard" is "mandatory in IHUK WNIHL Competition". Everywhere else, wear one anyway: the IIHF book recommends it for every player, and requires it of a men's Under-20 player without full-face protection.

Equipment that does not meet the rules has its own ladder

This one is nobody's amendment. It is IIHF Rule 9.5, the same in both editions, and the EIHL Casebook reproduces it word for word — so it reaches every British player, the Elite League included. When the referee judges a piece of your equipment illegal and tells you to change or remove it:

• You and your team are warned to adjust it. After the warning, "all Players on that team wearing such equipment shall be penalized in accordance with Rule 12 – Illegal Equipment."
• If you refuse, it is a minor penalty — and the rule labels it "Delay of Game".
• If you return to the ice without making the change, a misconduct.
• "Should this happen a third time, the Player shall be issued a game misconduct penalty."

Read that escalation as conditional, not as a count. ⚠️ What moves you up it is refusing, and then coming back out unchanged — not a third equipment offence of any kind. IIHF Rule 12.1 carries the same three steps in its own words for protective equipment worn outside the uniform, with the minor labelled "Illegal Equipment" instead.

The In-House Rules do not amend Rule 9.5, so the IIHF ladder applies. They do amend the step below. Rule 12's cage-and-visor ladder is domestic (§Facial protection and helmet fit), and so is the jersey rule: "Jerseys must cover all relevant protective equipment (e.g. elbow pads)", with "First offence: Warning" and then "Subsequent offences: 10-minute Misconduct Penalty." Where IIHF 9.5 makes an uncovered elbow pad a minor on the second violation, domestically it is a 10-minute misconduct — and two misconducts end your game.

Jewellery: only the Elite League writes a rule. Its Casebook's Rule 9.5 is flat — "Jewelry cannot be worn, either under a player’s equipment or exposed to the outside of equipment" — with no adult exemption. No other British document read here writes one, and neither does the IIHF book. ⚠️ Read that silence as no written rule, not as permission: the referee's power under Rule 9.5 to order equipment changed reaches a ring or a chain anyway, and nothing read here establishes what a referee outside the Elite League will do about one. ⚠️ Tape it or take it off.

The trapezoid may not be enforced

The IIHF book has a goalkeeper's restricted area (Rule 1.8 for the geometry, 27.7 for the penalty), so on the face of it British hockey has a trapezoid. England Ice Hockey's own Rules & Regulations say otherwise:

Rule 22.3 reads as written for England and Wales, but whether this 2024-25 rule still stands is unsettled, and so is whether it now reaches Scotland and Northern Ireland — so wherever you play in Britain, England and Wales included, play as though the trapezoid binds. It writes no scope of its own, sits beside a rink rule for "EIH competitions", and England Ice Hockey is the NGB "in England and Wales" (Rules & Regulations 1.1); whether the merger carries it further is the open question in §Who governs what. Whether it reaches BUIHA university hockey is unsettled too; the In-House Rules are silent, so there IIHF Rule 27.7 reads as live.

The Elite League has not suspended it either. Its Casebook never mentions Rule 27, so the IIHF book governs, and nothing read here says whether its fixtures count as EIH competitions. Many British rinks have no trapezoid painted because of the suspension, but treat an unmarked sheet as a hint, not a ruling — 27.7 turns on "the position of the puck", not the markings.

Play as though it binds, wherever you are. For a goalie that costs nothing and the alternative is two minutes. For an attacking team the safe assumption runs the other way — plan as though their goalie may come for a dumped puck.

And 22.3 does not suspend the delay-of-game rule. A goalie who "holds, 'freezes' or plays the puck with their stick, skates or body in such a manner as to deliberately cause a stoppage of play" still takes a minor, and that rule "applies outside of their goal crease area" (IIHF 63.2(I), the same in both editions) — inside the trapezoid area as well as beyond it. A goalie who comes out to cut down the angle and covers the puck after making the save is expressly legal (63.2(VI), Note).

Treat this as unsettled. The suspension is in the 2024-25 Rules & Regulations, and neither edition of the In-House Rules mentions the restricted area. ⚠️ Ask your league — it decides where your goalie may retrieve a rim, several times a game.

Under the In-House Rules your centre is replaced for almost any faceoff violation — and either centre may put the stick down first

Two sentences, both new for 2026-27, both under In-House Rule 76 – Face-Offs. The 2025-26 edition had no Rule 76 at all.

On a faceoff violation under In-House Rule 76, the centre goes. "With the exception of face-offs following icings, the linesperson shall immediately replace the centre for all violations." So on any draw except the one following an icing, a violation costs your team its centre for that draw — including a violation your winger commits by stepping into the circle, because it is the centre the rule removes, not the player who moved. ⚠️ Do not read the icing carve-out as a free draw. IHUK does not amend IIHF Rule 76.7, so a second violation by your team on that same draw is still a bench minor. And the In-House sentence says nothing about the limit the 2026/27 IIHF book writes into its post-icing rule, which spares the centre for the "first face-off violation" only (76.4). Treat one attempt as what you have.

Either centre may put their stick down first. "Linespersons must ensure both centres are squared up correctly behind their marks with the whole of their stick blades (not toe or heel) in the white portion of the face-off circle. Either centre can now put their stick down first for a face-off." ⚠️ That is a British departure from the IIHF book. IIHF Rule 76.4 gives the order to the defending player at eight of the nine spots and to the visiting player at centre ice, in both editions.

The Elite League keeps the IIHF order and blade standard. The In-House Rules never name it, and its Casebook writes no Rule 76, so an EIHL draw runs IIHF Rule 76 unamended: ⚠️ the defending centre's stick goes down first at the eight spots outside centre ice, the visiting centre's at centre ice, and "at least the toe of the blade" in the white is enough. A violation still costs an EIHL centre the dot on most draws, under the IIHF's own 2026/27 book.

Faceoffs covers what both changes do at the dot.

Embellishment costs you twelve minutes under the In-House Rules, not two

In-House Rule 64: Embellishment is one line, and it is new for 2026-27: "Adding a misconduct to a minor. The required call is now 2 plus 10."

Under the IIHF book a dive — or embellishing, or feigning an injury — is a minor and nothing more, in both editions. The British amendment adds a 10-minute misconduct.

The Elite League does not. Its Casebook's Rule 64 keeps the plain minor, but its Department of Player Safety "has the ability to fine players" for diving "⁠[r]egardless of the call at ice level". ⚠️ So a dive costs an Elite League player two minutes and a possible fine; under the In-House Rules it costs twelve minutes.

Read "2 plus 10" the way the penalty box does. You sit for twelve minutes; your team is short for two, because a substitute serves the minor (IIHF Rule 22.3). But a second misconduct in the game is an automatic game misconduct (Rules 20.4 and 22.1), so a dive plus a missing neck guard, or a loose chin strap after a team warning, ends your night.

A goalie never goes to the box, but the count still catches them. Teammates serve both halves of a "2 plus 10" (Rules 27.1 and 27.3), yet the misconduct is recorded against the goalie, and a second one in the game is an automatic game misconduct; a teammate or the backup then takes the net (27.4). Keep the count yourself.

A broken stick must be dropped — and the In-House Rules bar carrying it anywhere on the ice

In-House Rule 10.3 is new for 2026-27: "Skating with a broken stick anywhere on the ice is not permitted under IHUK In-House Rules. A player whose stick is broken must drop their stick immediately. Failure to do so will incur a 2min penalty for illegal equipment".

The IIHF book already required a broken stick to be dropped — its Rule 10.3 lets a player "participate in the game provided they drop the 'broken stick'", on a minor penalty for an infraction. What the domestic rule adds is reach and a label: skating with it anywhere on the ice, not merely playing with it, and the call announced as illegal equipment. Playing without a stick is fine. Get a replacement handed to you from your bench or by a teammate on the ice, or pick an unbroken one off the ice — but nobody may throw one to you, which is a penalty in itself under the same IIHF rule.

Fighting

In short: Do not fight, even when someone else starts it; under every British rule book, fighting back can still be penalised.

In NIHL (all leagues), SNL and BUIHA Varsity, fighting is a five-minute major. In NIHL, NIHL1 and NIHL2, a fighting major in the last five minutes of regulation or in overtime also carries an automatic game misconduct. ⚠️ At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, any fight in the last five minutes, in overtime or at the end of the game brings at least a one-game ban under IHUK's discipline rules, whatever league you play in.

New for 2026-27, the unwilling combatant "may be awarded (at the referee's discretion) a minor OR a major penalty (2 OR a standalone 5 without a game misconduct)". So a fight you did not want can still cost five minutes. Except late in an NIHL game: "⁠[a]ny fighting major" in the last five minutes or overtime brings an automatic game misconduct, the unwilling combatant's included. In women's hockey, the WNIHL included, plan on any major ending your game anyway — In-House Rule 101 (§Age categories are British, and unisex) — since Section 6 never says whether its "NIHL (all leagues)" scope reaches a women's fixture.

Two limits sit on the In-House fighting amendment, and both matter more than the five minutes does.

It reaches those three competitions and no others. Elsewhere under the In-House Rules the IIHF book stands, and there ⚠️ a willing combatant's fighting major carries an automatic game misconduct (20.4 with Table 6 in 2025/26, Table 5 in 2026/27), and at a club in England or Wales the one-game ban for a late fight still applies; 46.1 reaches the plain willing fight directly. The 2025/26 book's own 46.1 text says only that a willing combatant "may be ejected", so that edition disagrees with itself; play to the table. In junior hockey any major adds a game misconduct regardless.

And it reaches the plain willing fight and nothing else. The rest of Rule 46 is untouched. Instigator (46.3) and aggressor (46.4) each add a major and an automatic game misconduct on top of a minor. Sucker-punching (46.5) and fighting outside the periods (46.9) are a major plus an automatic game misconduct. Fighting off the playing surface (46.11) adds a game misconduct to any major. Third man in (46.7) is a game misconduct at the referee's discretion, unless one is already imposed in the original altercation. Persisting after being told to stop, or resisting a linesperson, can draw "at least" a major plus an automatic game misconduct. Rule 28 supplementary discipline sits above all of it.

The Elite League writes its own Rule 46: lighter on the night, heavier afterwards. Its Casebook's 46.1 says "Willing combatants will be penalised with at least a Major Penalty ("Fighting")", adding "Note for their 2nd Major Penalty an Automatic Game misconduct will be assessed" — where the 2026/27 IIHF book makes the ejection standard. So a plain willing fight during play need not end your game there; in the warm-up or after the buzzer the Casebook does not replace IIHF 46.8 — plan on a major plus an automatic game misconduct if a referee sees it, and a suspension or fine regardless (Casebook 5.6(1)). ⚠️ Do not hear that as permission. "At least" is a floor. Any fighting major taken "after the original altercation has started" brings a game misconduct, waivable only where the opponent clearly instigated — so a second fight on one whistle ends your game on your first major. And two majors of any kind still end it under Rule 20.4. ⚠️ The Casebook never says whether that "2nd Major Penalty" counts in the game or across the season — read it the stricter way and ask the League.

An early instigator stays on the ice, but everything else about instigating is heavier. An instigator gets "(2 minor + 5 major + 10 misconduct)". In the last five minutes or overtime that becomes "(2 minor + 5 major + 20 Game misconduct)" plus "one additional game, pending a review of the incident", with the coach subject to discipline too. A second instigation in a game brings the game misconduct at any point, and instigating outside the periods brings at least a one-game suspension. Instigator and aggressor together draws a minor, a major, a ten-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. A 10th fighting major in the regular season brings a one-game suspension, and from the 14th, two games each — reset for the play-offs, and not counting a fight in which you were not the instigator.

Keep your jersey on and tie it down. Taking it off before an altercation is a minor plus a game misconduct. Fighting without it tied down is a minor; if it comes completely off, a minor plus a game misconduct — the game misconduct dropping where the tie-down held or an opponent or linesman took it off. Every fighting penalty carrying a game misconduct, and every instigator or aggressor penalty, goes to the EIHL Department of Player Safety for possible further suspension. ⚠️ The Casebook's Rule 46 numbers do not match the IIHF book's, and it prints 46.2 twice — look any of this up by heading, never by number.

Leaving the bench or the penalty box during an altercation

In short: When any altercation starts, stay on the bench or in the box until an official releases you, even if your penalty has expired.

This rule applies at every age and in every competition. Body Contact and Battles sets the rule books side by side; this is the British half.

IIHF Rule 70.1 is one sentence with no exception: "No Player may leave the Players' bench or penalty box at any time during an altercation or for the purpose of starting an altercation." Its numbers are the same in both editions.

The In-House Rules do not amend it. Their fighting amendment reaches fighting only and they never mention Rule 70, so the IIHF rule applies unamended: playing NIHL changes what a fight costs you, not what leaving the bench costs you.

The Elite League adds to it. The Fines and Suspensions list under its Casebook's Rule 46 says a player who leaves the players' or penalty bench "to join an altercation" "will receive either a 20 (Game Misconduct) penalty or 2 + 20 (Game Misconduct) penalty" and is "automatically suspended for the minimum of three" games, pending review. ⚠️ That suspension is keyed to joining, and Rule 70.1's bar is wider, so the in-game penalty can land where the suspension does not.

"Altercation" is a far lower bar than a fight. IIHF Rule 46.2 (46.3 in 2026/27) defines it as a situation involving two "Players with at least one Player" to be penalized. ⚠️ One penalty, not one punch. A post-whistle scrum where somebody takes a roughing minor is an altercation, and from that moment the bench door and the box are shut.

The penalty box is where this catches ordinary players rather than fighters. The IIHF's own Situation Handbook rules on a player sitting on a hooking minor who leaves the box while two others fight, doing nothing but skating around the altercation: an additional minor penalty plus a game misconduct. ⚠️ Skating around it is not staying out of it.

And do not read "leave on expiry of your penalty" as your permission. Rule 70.6 attaches a second condition: you may not leave until your penalty expires and your team is entitled to an extra skater on the ice. Coincident penalties are the everyday case where those two moments don't line up — your time is up, but your team isn't yet entitled to the extra skater, and the stoppage you were waiting for turns out to be a fight. ⚠️ Stay in the box until an official waves you out.

What leaving costs on the night. Rule 70.3 gives a game misconduct to "the first or second Player to leave the Players’ bench (or penalty box) during an altercation", and Rule 70.4 gives any penalised player who leaves the box during a stoppage and an altercation a minor plus a game misconduct. ⚠️ Being third out is not a free pass — 70.1 still bars you, and whatever you do out there is penalised on its own terms. The 2026/27 book also writes in supplementary discipline for the player and coach, which Rule 28 already allowed.

What to do: if an altercation starts while you are on the bench or in the penalty box, you stay where you are until an official releases you — not to help a teammate, not to change, and not because your penalty has just expired.

Overtime is not universal

In short: Ask before the game whether your fixture plays overtime and how its shootout works, because British competitions differ.

Outside the Elite League, which writes its own rule (below), In-House Rule 84 provides that overtime "is only played in NIHL fixtures and in SNL fixtures where specifically provided for in competition regulations." Many games simply end level.

Where NIHL National League games do go to overtime: five minutes of 3-on-3, then a game-winning-shots competition with three shooters per team taking alternate shots, and if still level it continues one shot each as sudden victory. And unlike IIHF 84.4, which requires five different shooters, the NIHL National procedure says in terms that "the same player may be used for multiple attempts."

That repeat is not open everywhere, though — Appendix 1 writes three different versions of it. NIHL 1 and 2 run the same five-minute 3-on-3 and three-shooter shootout for league and playoff games — except the first leg of a quarter- or semi-final series — but open a second attempt to a player only "(AFTER the initial 3 shots have been taken)". The SNL plays a five-minute 3-on-3 and then "⁠[a] best-of-three penalty shot shootout", in which "⁠[t]he first three designated shooters may be repeated after every full round of three." So name your three, and ask which version is yours before you plan on your best shooter taking two of them.

The NIHL National Playoff Final Weekend has two separate procedures. Appendix 1 sets them out as distinct provisions:

• Semi-finals. "If the score in the Semi Finals is level after regulation", the game goes to 20 minutes of 5-on-5 overtime, and "if still tied, a Game Winning Shots (GWS) competition will take place" — the same three-shooter procedure as above.
• The Final. "If the score in the Final is level after regulation, the game will proceed to successive 20:00 periods of 5-on-5 sudden-death overtime until a goal is scored ('golden goal')" — and then, in terms: "No Game Winning Shots will be used."

So a semi-final can end in a shootout; the Final is played out until somebody scores, however many periods that takes.

BUIHA has a designated exception. Appendix 1 says "Certain fixtures will be designated as VARSITY OT games on the schedule. These games will follow the NIHL rules for Overtime and Game Winning Shots." That sits in tension with Rule 84's word "only", and the document does not reconcile them — but the Varsity clause is the more specific, so follow it where your fixture is marked VARSITY OT. Where it is not, there is no overtime.

In the Elite League, plan for five shooters, not three. None of the above reaches it: the EIHL Casebook writes its own Rule 84. A regular-season or Challenge Cup group game level after 60 minutes plays five minutes of 3-on-3, then a shootout of five shooters a side under the IIHF's penalty-shot procedure. A two-leg knockout tie plays no overtime after the first leg. A second leg level on aggregate, a Challenge Cup elimination game and a playoff semi-final play 20 minutes of 5-on-5, then continuous 20-minute periods of 3-on-3 until somebody scores. The Challenge Cup Final and the Playoff Final play sudden-death 20-minute periods, and the playoff third-place game goes straight to a shootout.

Age categories are British, and unisex

Junior categories are set by birth year, not by the North American banding — and the bands move by a full year every season, so the only table you can safely use is the one printed in the current season's In-House Rules. These are the 2026-27 bands, from In-House Rule 200 – Junior Hockey Age Categories:

Check the season on any birth-year table, including this one. Every band shifted a year from 2025-26, when Under 16 was 2010–2011, so a player born in 2010 was Under 16 last season and is Under 19 this one. ⚠️ A table from a previous season puts a child in the wrong age group — in a collision sport, the gap between a fourteen-year-old and an eighteen-year-old is the point of having categories.

The In-House Rules add a note worth quoting: "Junior age categories are unisex and are not classified as 'Mens' within the UK." The 2026-27 junior rules still expect girls on junior teams. A separate UK sex and gender policy sets male and female categories by sex recorded at birth from U12, with some exceptions, and does not say how that fits unisex junior teams, so ask your club.

In women's hockey a major ends your game at every age, adult included. In-House Rule 101 says a major "will, in all cases," also draw an ejection, with no age scope — and a sibling clause separately adds the IIHF's under-20 ejection for non-adults, which would be redundant if the main clause covered only juniors. The Adult definition (14th birthday onward) is not an exemption. ⚠️ Plan on it, and confirm with your league — no official British interpretation has been obtained, but the text supports the conservative reading.

Junior hockey reads the same way, U19 down to U10 — but that is this document's inference, not the rule's words. In-House Rule 201 applies "these rules" to all junior age groups without naming the ejection rule. Play as though a major ends a junior's game, and confirm with your league.

U12 is a different game, and neither British rule book says so

In short: In IHUK's U12 leagues, clear the zone when called offside, leave the puck at the change buzzer, and stay on your line.

Neither British rule book sets a playing format for U12. IHUK's Junior Rules of Competition does: U12 is "Full ice, non-checking, running clock", and "U12: Playing format, including line changes, off-side rules, and penalty administration—is set out in Appendix D."

Appendix D is where U12 hockey actually lives, and five things in it change what you do on the ice:

• U12 has no icing. The whole provision is one line: "No icing calls at U12." Nothing is whistled and nothing comes back. That is a rule, not an instruction — giving the puck away down the ice is still giving the puck away.
• At U12 an offside does not stop play. Appendix D says "Play does not stop." The official calls your team out of the zone instead — "Reds OUT!" — and "the attacking team must clear the zone before re-entering." ⚠️ Not clearing is a penalty: "Failure to retreat quickly = delay of game penalty." The heading also names frozen pucks, but the only stated rule on them is that "Excessive freezing by goalies may also be penalised."
• The U12 clock runs, and a buzzer changes the lines every 60 seconds. Three periods of 18 minutes on three lines, or 20 on four, all running clock — stoppages happen only where both teams agreed to them before the game, and then after each goal and at the officials' discretion. When the buzzer goes, the puck must be left where it is — and "Deliberate movement = warning, then minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct."
• At U12 you play on the line you were put on. Coaches must file line sheets no later than 30 minutes before faceoff, and players are identified by line — numbered jerseys, coloured armbands, helmet tape, or another method both teams and the officials agree. Moving up is allowed only for an injury or an ejection, and Appendix D prices a breach flatly: "First offence = minor penalty."
• At U12 a minor is three minutes, not two — four in a four-line game — served on your own line's shifts: "if a player is on a 3-line rotation, they miss their own shifts until the penalty time has expired." ⚠️ Appendix D does not say whether that time runs on the game clock or only while your line is on the ice — one missed shift on the first reading, three on the second — nor whether your team plays short while you sit. Ask your coach or the officials before the game. A goal in the same shift ends the penalty, except a major. ⚠️ Coincidental penalties are not applied at U12, so two penalties do not cancel. A "5+Game penalty" ejects you at once, the five minutes unserved.

U10 is a different format again. The U10 Rules of Competition plays every game on a reduced surface — "either cross ice or half ice" — with buzzer line changes of at most 60 seconds, faceoffs at centre after a goal, a line change, a frozen puck or a puck out of play, and penalties explained to the player rather than recorded. "Bodychecking is NOT allowed in U10 matches." ⚠️ No British document read here sets icing or offside for U10 — read that as a silence, not a rule, and ask the coach running your game day how they restart play.

These formats are IHUK's own junior leagues and nothing beyond them. At U14, U16 and U19 the same table returns to "Full ice, checking, stop clock" and the ordinary IIHF game. Nothing here settles a Scottish competition outside that structure, a tournament somebody else runs, or the EIHL. ⚠️ Read the current season's Appendix D, never an old copy — these documents are revised in place.

A first major can end your game, and adults are not exempt

In short: Play with less margin than NHL habit gives you: under the IIHF book a single major can end your game.

Junior hockey, and women's hockey at every age, are covered above (§Age categories are British, and unisex). This is about you as an adult in any competition. It is the IIHF's own text, not a British amendment, so it binds wherever the IIHF book is played.

Your book is the IIHF's, and IIHF Rule 20.4 attaches an automatic game misconduct to any major penalty listed in the Reference Tables. No injury needed, and once the major is called the ejection is not the referee's to withhold.

Two majors end your night too — and so do two misconducts. Rule 20.4 also ejects on a second major or a second misconduct in the same game, whatever they are for, and Rule 22.1 repeats the misconduct half. The NHL counts only majors and ejects on the third. ⚠️ So a player calibrated on NHL hockey has one major and one misconduct more margin than they have here — and under the In-House Rules a missing neck guard alone is a 10-minute misconduct. See Rules Primer for the repeat-offence rule.

Reference Table 6 (2025/26; merged into Table 5 in 2026/27) carries twenty entries, three of them fighting. The other seventeen include checking from behind, cross-checking, slashing, hooking, high-sticking, slew-footing, clipping and an illegal check to the head, plus a women's-only checking entry and a catch-all for any dangerous act a referee judges endangers another player — so not knowing the list is no defence. Plan around all of them. The main domestic softening is the plain willing fight (§Fighting). Every other fighting offence keeps its IIHF major-plus-ejection, except that an early Elite League instigator stays on the ice and goes to League review instead.

Table 7 (2025/26) adds five more first-major risks — boarding, charging, elbowing, interference and tripping — where the major and game misconduct come together at the referee's discretion. Whether they also fall inside 20.4's automatic reach the book leaves open. ⚠️ In the Elite League three are settled: for boarding, charging and elbowing its Casebook says "When a major penalty is imposed under this rule for a foul resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent, a game misconduct shall be imposed." Play as though the ejection follows the major regardless — being wrong that way costs you nothing.

Do not read this as leniency compared with the NHL. The NHL needs an injury for the automatic ejection on six of its thirteen non-fighting entries; the IIHF needs none. The IIHF book has no match-penalty tier, so a major plus the automatic misconduct is your ceiling inside the game. ⚠️ It is not the end of it. The Referee must report “all major penalties and the surrounding circumstances” after the game (Rule 20.7), every game misconduct goes to a body with “full power to impose further disciplinary measures” (23.2), and Rule 28 lets the authorities act “whether or not such offense has been penalized by the Referee(s)”.

Who acts depends on your competition. In the Elite League it is the EIHL Department of Player Safety and EIHL Hockey Operations; under the In-House Rules, the home association's Discipline Policy, with the IHUK Department of Player Safety or the SIHA Disciplinary Committee acting. ⚠️ At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, a game misconduct for checking from behind or a check to the head, or a major for boarding, is at least a one-game ban under IHUK's discipline rules, and you also miss a game in every other league or age group you are registered in. A discriminatory slur is at least a one-game ban too, with an immediate suspension while it is investigated. For a first offence, before the panel adjusts for record and injury, the tariff runs up to eleven games or more for boarding or checking from behind, and up to twenty for a check to the head. Under 16, a first offence may draw a written warning instead; a second or serious one is still a suspension. The Elite League's Casebook writes its own suspensions, and Scotland's discipline policy has not been read. ⚠️ On first-major ejection, yours is the stricter book.

Penalties also add up to bans. At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, IHUK gives penalty points: one for a major, two for a fighting major or a ten-minute misconduct, four for a game misconduct and five for a major plus a game misconduct; a minor carries none. Points count across every league and age group you play in and carry into next season (NIHL National keeps its own count and resets it each season), and 10 points is a one-game ban, 15 two games and 20 three games, with no appeal; 25 brings a hearing. So five ten-minute misconducts — for arguing on after a call, say, or a missing neck guard — are a one-game ban on their own.

Officials have been told to call the foul what it is

New for 2026-27, and addressed to referees. In-House Section 4 asks officials to stop defaulting to catch-all labels such as Interference: "we would like our officials to call the foul what it is." A player tripped without the puck is to be called Tripping, and "If one player cross checks another player in the head or neck area, we want the penalty to be called Cross Checking, not Checking to the Head."

This changes the name of the call, not what is legal. Nothing in it permits an act that was a penalty before, or forbids one that was not, and it attaches no age to anything. In particular it is not a body-checking rule — see §What this document does not cover.

And a relabelled call is not the lesser one. Cross-checking 59.3 and Illegal Check to the Head 48.3 are both on IIHF Reference Table 6 (2025/26), the automatic-ejection table — ⚠️ so a cross-check to the head called cross-checking carries exactly the same ejection exposure. Interference 56.5 and Tripping 57.4 are both on the 2025/26 Table 7, where the game misconduct is the referee's judgement. §A first major can end your game sets out both tables.

Both table numbers are the 2025/26 book's; the 2026/27 book merges them into one Table 5, and every entry named here is still on it.

Team sheets and bench staffing

In short: Get your team list to the referees on time, and check your bench carries the qualified coaches your competition requires.

The official team list must reach the referee crew "no later than 20 minutes before the scheduled face-off", and only listed players are eligible. Late submission is a bench minor for delay of game, "to be served at the start of the game or at the first stoppage if identified later" — so it is served even where the omission is only spotted after the game has begun.

For IHUK-sanctioned games, benches must carry a Level 2 or higher non-playing coach aged 18+, plus one more coach at minimum Level 1. The rule opens by scoping itself — "For all IHUK-sanctioned games (except where competition regs state otherwise)", where the 2025-26 edition said EIH-sanctioned — and there are three documented carve-outs:

• Adult recreational hockey in England: "If all players on both teams are 18 years of age or older on game day, there is no requirement for qualified EIH coaches to be present on the bench." If any under-18 plays, the standard rules return: "If any player under 18 is taking part, the standard IHUK Rules of Competition shall apply (see Rule 25)" — a separate document not reproduced here, and one the 2025-26 edition called the EIH Rules of Competition.
• BUIHA (university) hockey: "There is no requirement for coaches in BUIHA ice hockey, as players under 18 are not permitted to participate." The carve-out ends where its reason does: if a non-BUIHA opponent in a challenge match fields an under-18 player, the same section sends the fixture back to the standard In-House requirements, pointing to Rule 25.
• SIHA-sanctioned games run a different coaching-qualification ladder: Level 2 minimum for junior and senior, Level 1 minimum for recreational.

A team manager may sit on the bench but does not count toward the requirement. On medics the In-House Rules say "While not mandatory, the presence of a qualified medic on the bench is strongly recommended" — a recommendation worth taking on its own terms rather than reading as an exemption.

None of that describes an Elite League game. The EIHL Casebook's Rule 5 sets a game-day roster of twenty — at most eighteen skaters and two goalies, at least twelve and two — and at most eight team officials on the bench: "⁠[i]f not listed on the official score sheet, no other persons will be permitted on the players benches." It sets no coaching-qualification ladder. Its Rule 7 adds a bench minor for naming the wrong starting line-up, raisable only "before the second face-off in the first period takes place."

What medical cover you can expect at the rink, and what to ask for

In short: Before you need it, know the first aider, the phone and the plan, and learn every red flag that means calling 999.

What a fixture must have, below, is England Ice Hockey's rule for its own sanctioned competitions and fixtures. No document read here says whether it binds an Elite League fixture, or whether, since the merger, it reaches IHUK competitions in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It sets nothing for a practice session. Nothing else read sets any first-aid, ambulance or emergency-plan requirement on a venue; the WNIHL Rules of Competition only say clubs "are strongly recommended to appoint a registered and qualified medical practitioner". Every registered coach must hold a Basic First Aid certificate, UK-wide, but that tells you nothing about the building. ⚠️ So wherever you play, ask your club what cover your rink actually has.

Five things are required at every England Ice Hockey fixture: a first aider; a first aid kit checked before each game; a risk assessment and an emergency action plan, both shared with the visiting team; and a telephone to summon the emergency services. ⚠️ The rule attaches no qualification to the first aider: 33.5 says only "First aider", while the NQF Level 3 bar in 33.7 belongs to the recommended professional practitioner. A doctor or physio is only recommended — check the team sheet to see whether one is present. ⚠️ And an ambulance is explicitly not required on-standby — the rule leaves that to the club's own risk assessment. So a fixture with a first aider, a phone, and no ambulance and no doctor is exactly what the rule allows, which is why the phone is on the mandatory list.

The numbers. No British rulebook names one; England Ice Hockey has adopted the UK Concussion Guidelines for Non-Elite (Grassroots) Sport, which tell you to call 999 for red flags or any other significant injury, and to call 111, the NHS line, for assessment within 24 hours of a suspected concussion with no red flag. The same guidance says the player should not be left alone for those first 24 hours. The guidance's own instruction is that if any red flag is "reported or observed", the player should receive "urgent medical assessment from an appropriate Healthcare Professional onsite or in a hospital Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department using emergency ambulance transfer if necessary". At a rink whose mandatory cover is a first aider and a telephone, that means calling 999, not calling 111. Scotland's own guidance (sportscotland) says the same, and there you dial 111 for NHS 24. In Northern Ireland, where you cannot call 111, call your GP or the GP out-of-hours service for a head knock with no red flag.

Know what counts as a red flag before you need it, ⚠️ and learn the whole list rather than a handful of it — a partial list teaches you to stop looking.

These are the fourteen red flags in the UK guidance, in full. They belong to a player who has taken a blow to the head, or a blow to the body that moved the head, and any one of them reported or observed means calling 999:

• Any loss of consciousness because of the injury
• Deteriorating consciousness — more drowsy
• Amnesia (no memory) for events before or after the injury
• Increasing confusion or irritability
• Unusual behaviour change
• Any new neurological deficit — the guidance's five examples are "⁠[d]ifficulties with understanding, speaking, reading or writing", decreased sensation, loss of balance, weakness, and double vision
• Seizure or convulsion, limb twitching, or lying rigid or motionless due to muscle spasm
• Severe or increasing headache
• Repeated vomiting
• Severe neck pain
• Any suspicion of a skull fracture — its examples are a cut, a bruise, swelling, or severe pain at the site of injury
• Previous history of brain surgery or bleeding disorder
• Current "blood-thinning" therapy
• Current drug or alcohol intoxication

Any one of those fourteen is enough on its own — call 999. Scotland's own guidance prints the same list as thirteen, because it joins the two consciousness flags into one.

Three of the fourteen are facts about the player rather than about the injury — a previous brain surgery or bleeding disorder, current blood-thinning therapy, and current drug or alcohol intoxication. Two of those you would have to ask about or know already; intoxication is often the most visible thing at a rink. What makes the three matter is that they fire when nothing else has: a teammate on blood-thinning therapy who takes a knock to the head is one of the fourteen on that alone, so call 999 even if they get up and tell you they are fine. Find out in advance who on your team is on one.

Conditioning and Recovery carries CRT6's ten, the international list, and where the two lists differ, act on whichever fires first. Neither document writes that rule — it is this guide's reading, and it can only make you act earlier. CRT6 is lower on the neck: "Neck pain or tenderness" against the British "Severe neck pain", so call 999 for any neck pain. The British list is lower on the skull — "⁠[a]ny suspicion of a skull fracture" against CRT6's "Visible deformity of the skull" — and on seizures, reaching limb twitching and a player lying rigid or motionless, which the same guidance warns "may appear to be unconscious". A player who goes stiff and still after a head impact is an emergency.

If a player is lying motionless, establish whether they respond, ⚠️ and if you cannot get a response, call 999. That one check is the whole of the decision, and it decides it in both directions.

You do not have to tell an unconscious player from a rigid one — both are on the list. A player lying still but awake and answering you may not need an ambulance, but do not move them or get them up: let the rink's first aider or medical cover assess them where they lie, and call 999 for neck pain, rigidity or any other red flag. Treating a player you cannot rouse as the loss-of-consciousness red flag is this guide's reading of the two lists, not either document's words, and it can only make you call sooner.

The same guidance sets a floor under when you play again: "⁠[a]ll concussions should be managed individually, but there should be no return to competition before 21 days from injury", counting the day of injury as day 0. ⚠️ That is a bar, not a date and not a clearance — the medical assessment still has to happen, and a clearance arriving sooner does not put you in a non-elite British game sooner. Training with a risk of head injury waits until you have been free of symptoms at rest for 14 days, and "cannot start until Day 15 at the earliest". Only athletes on elite "Enhanced Care pathways" "may be formally cleared for an earlier return to competition." Conditioning and Recovery has the rest.

Two more instructions, from two sources. The UK guidance: "If a neck injury is suspected, the player should only be moved by Healthcare Professionals with appropriate training." And from CRT6, the international concussion tool: "Do not remove helmet (if present) or other equipment." The UK guidance never mentions helmets, so it does not contradict this. Leave the helmet on, and don't move a player with a suspected neck injury yourself except as far as keeping their airway clear needs. Body Contact and Battles owns the full on-ice response.

Do this before you need it. Find out who the first aider is, where the telephone is, and whether your team has been given the rink's emergency action plan — and ask the same of an away rink, since sharing both with visitors is part of the rule.

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What this document does not cover

• EIHL interpretation, rule by rule. The Motorpoint EIHL Casebook 26-27 (Version 1.1, 8 September 2026) was read end to end on 22 September 2026. Its rules that bear on this document are reported in their own sections, and its Section 11, on women's hockey, reads in full "Not applicable to EIHL Competition". It has been searched, not summarised, so nothing here describes what the EIHL does with a rule this document does not name.
• Competition regulations, except on checking, the junior formats and bench equipment. Each league sets its own rules on rosters, imports, fixtures and discipline, and they are not reproduced here. Four IHUK 2026-27 Rules of Competition — junior, U10, NIHL 1 and 2, and WNIHL — are quoted for those three things only. ⚠️ No Rule Bulletin has been obtained, and the In-House Rules say IHUK "may also issue Rule Bulletins from time to time" — so a bulletin issued since could have changed any British rule here. Ask your league whether one has been issued.
• Northern Ireland — playing rules only. The 2026-27 In-House Rules now reach Northern Ireland, but ⚠️ their video-review and Coach's Challenge bars are still worded "in EIH or SIHA competition". What governs registration, discipline and competition regulations there is not established: England Ice Hockey's Rules & Regulations cover England and Wales, and no Northern Irish equivalent has been read.
• What medical cover is required outside England Ice Hockey fixtures. Nothing read here clearly requires any — see §What medical cover you can expect at the rink, and ask your club and league.
• Whether body checking is legal at your age, outside the four Rules of Competition read here. Neither British rule book sets a checking age. The In-House Rules' only body-contact sentence tells officials to call a cross-check to the head "Cross Checking, not Checking to the Head" — ⚠️ that is about the name of the penalty, not what is legal. The IIHF book restricts checking only in women's hockey (Rule 101.1). ⚠️ Nothing read here settles the EIHL, BUIHA, NIHL National, the PNIHL, the SNL or other Scottish domestic competitions, and "IHUK runs my league" does not either, because the In-House Rules reach competitions none of the four covers. Ask your league before you hit anyone.

Common Mistakes

• Reading the USA Hockey rules as yours. Take the IIHF rule and skip the other two — in Britain the USA Hockey and Hockey Canada rules do not apply.
• Skipping the neck guard because you are an adult. Wear one every time you go on the ice, practice included. The adult exemption is North American, not British. Under the In-House Rules a missing one is a 10-minute misconduct with no warning. In the Elite League it is a warning, then a minor, and refusing to fix it climbs the equipment ladder to a misconduct and then a game misconduct.
• Expecting a video review or a Coach's Challenge. Play to the whistle — the call on the ice is the call. Neither exists in EIH or SIHA competition. The Elite League keeps both. Video can still be used for discipline after the game.
• Using last season's birth-year table. Take the bands from the current season's In-House Rule 200. ⚠️ Every band moved a full year for 2026-27, so an old table puts a child in the wrong age group in a contact sport.
• Waiting for an icing or offside whistle at U12 in IHUK's junior leagues. Play on, and when the official calls your team out, get everyone back over the line at once. Neither whistle comes, and ⚠️ not clearing the zone quickly is a delay-of-game penalty. From U14 up it is the ordinary stop-clock game.
• Treating U12 minors like adult ones. Ask your coach or the officials before the game how they count it. It is three minutes — four in a four-line game — served on your own line's shifts, and the rules do not say whether that runs on the game clock or only while your line is out, nor whether your team plays short. Coincidental penalties do not cancel at U12, and jumping onto the wrong line is itself a minor.
• Thinking only the centre's own violation costs the draw. Keep your wingers out of the circle until the puck drops, and have a second player ready. Under the In-House Rules a winger's violation gets your centre replaced on any draw except after an icing. ⚠️ In the Elite League the same encroachment still costs your centre on most draws, under the IIHF's own 2026/27 book — though there the defending centre's stick goes down first.
• Thinking a dive costs two minutes. Stay on your feet. Under the In-House Rules a dive is a minor plus a 10-minute misconduct: twelve minutes, with your team short for two. A goalie's teammate serves it for them, but the misconduct still counts toward the two that end the goalie's game. The Elite League keeps the plain minor.
• Finding no checking age in the rule book and assuming the North American one. Ask your league before you hit anyone. Your competition's Rules of Competition sets it, and in the four read here the junior line falls between U12 and U14. A junior who plays up — one age group, or into the NIHL from 16 (15 with approval) — is under the older game's line. ⚠️ "IHUK runs my league" does not answer it for NIHL National, the SNL or BUIHA Varsity.
• Hearing "cross-checking" instead of "checking to the head" and thinking it was the lesser call. It was not: both are on the automatic-ejection table, so a major for a cross-check to the head ejects you under either name. Don't cross-check at all — into the back of an opponent who doesn't see it coming it is checking from behind, which has no minor — plan on a major and an automatic game misconduct. ⚠️ Interference and tripping sit on the discretionary table, where the ejection is the referee's judgement. See §Officials have been told to call the foul what it is.
• Playing on after your helmet comes off. Leave the ice straight away, without waiting for a whistle. Under In-House Rule 9.8 failing to is a misconduct, and two misconducts end your game. A helmet and cage that do not match the manufacturer's sizing are Dangerous Equipment, and you are removed until it is put right. Leave the ice the same way if your visor or cage cracks or breaks in play.
• Taking the neck guard off on the bench. Keep it on for as long as you are on the bench. In junior and WNIHL hockey it is required there too, and a non-playing junior may be on the bench only in a helmet with full-face protection, a neck guard and upper-body protection — "⁠[o]therwise, they must leave the bench."
• Bending down for a neck guard that came off in play. Go to the bench and let somebody else collect it. In-House Rule 9.12: "If a neck guard comes off during play, the player must leave the ice and cannot retrieve it." Playing on without one is a 10-minute misconduct with no warning, and a second "automatically escalates to a Game Misconduct."
• Wearing the chin strap loose. Before the warm-up, tighten it until no more than one finger fits between strap and chin — the In-House limit is 2.5 cm. The first loose strap on your team is a team warning; ⚠️ after that it is a 10-minute misconduct, so a teammate's warning can use up yours. A loose strap is also how a helmet comes off, and then you must leave the ice.
• Wearing less than a half visor in a BUIHA game. Wear at least a half visor; a cage or a full visor clears it too. It is only a minimum, so an under-18 player fielded against BUIHA by a non-BUIHA opponent in a challenge match still needs full-face protection.
• Thinking a major in junior or women's hockey costs five minutes. Plan on your game being over, and confirm with your league. In women's hockey a major ends your game at every age, adults included, and junior hockey reads the same way, U19 down to U10. Adults elsewhere are not safe either: the IIHF book ejects on a first major for seventeen non-fighting fouls with no injury needed, plus five more at the referee's judgement. See §A first major can end your game.
• Leaving the box because your time was up and the whistle went. Stay until an official releases you. If the whistle went for an altercation, the box is shut whatever the clock says — see §Leaving the bench or the penalty box during an altercation.
• Assuming your rink is 60 × 30. Look rather than assume. The In-House Rules authorise sheets below 56 m × 26 m at all levels and in all fixtures they reach; they never mention the Elite League. No published census of British rink sizes exists.
• Planning for a shootout in the NIHL National Playoff Final. Plan your bench and your legs for as many extra periods as it takes. The semi-finals can go to a shootout; the Final plays 20-minute sudden-death periods to a golden goal, and "No Game Winning Shots will be used."
• Buying a junior a full visor because it is legal somewhere. Buy a cage — it satisfies every rule on a British junior skater, 18 or over included. A full visor meets the IIHF's Under-18 rule but not England Ice Hockey's junior cage rule, which IHUK's junior rules point to.
• Assuming an ambulance or a doctor is at the rink. Before the game, find out who the first aider is and where the phone is, and be ready to call 999 yourself. Neither is required, even at an England Ice Hockey fixture: a first aider, a kit, a plan and a phone are the minimum there, and nothing read here says what an Elite League game or a practice session must have.
• Learning a few red flags and thinking you know the list. Learn all fourteen in the guidance England Ice Hockey has adopted; a partial list teaches you to stop looking. Three are facts about the player — previous brain surgery or a bleeding disorder, current blood-thinning therapy, and current drug or alcohol intoxication — so call 999 for a teammate on anticoagulants who takes a knock to the head, even if they look fine.
• Treating a doctor's clearance as the last step back. Plan on at least 21 days out of competition after a concussion, however you feel. The adopted guidance sets that floor for the non-elite game underneath the medical assessment, not instead of it. Training with a risk of head injury waits until you have been free of symptoms at rest for 14 days, and not before day 15. Only elite athletes on an Enhanced Care pathway can be cleared earlier.
• Thinking only a major can end your game. After one misconduct, play as though the next one ends it: IIHF Rule 20.4 ejects on a second misconduct as well as a second major. The NHL has no misconduct count, so NHL instincts will not warn you.
• Removing an injured player's helmet. Leave it on. CRT6, the international concussion tool, says "Do not remove helmet (if present) or other equipment", and no British document contradicts it. Don't move a player with a suspected neck injury yourself, except to keep their airway clear.
• Arguing with a referee who has told you to change your equipment. Go and fix it, and take it up afterwards. Under IIHF Rule 9.5, which applies everywhere in Britain including the Elite League, it is a warning, then a minor for Delay of Game if you refuse, a misconduct if you come back out unchanged, and a game misconduct the third time (the In-House Rules add their own jersey and cage ladders, the cage one ending in a game misconduct).
• Treating the In-House Rules as the rule book. Read them with the IIHF book beside them. They are amendments, and on their own they do not describe the game.
• Assuming "EIHA" is defunct because the website says England Ice Hockey. Same organisation, renamed.

Check yourself

Answer each question before you go on — a real attempt, not a guess. Then go and check, because the checking is the part that does the work. Producing an answer and getting it wrong is worth more than recognising a right one, but only when the right answer follows: the section named with each question, and the Key Takeaways after them, are where you get it. Where the answer lives in another document, that is named too.

1. Somebody hands you a hockey document written to NHL rules that also gives the IIHF, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada rules where they differ. Which of those rules are yours, and what sits on top of that base depending on which competition you play in? (§Overview)

2. You are an adult, and you have read that adults are exempt from neck protection. Whose rule is that, what happens to you in a game under the In-House Rules without one, and does the requirement stop at games? (§Neck protection is mandatory, for everyone — and the In-House Rules give no warning)

3. A goal goes in off a skate and your bench wants it looked at. What can the officials do about that in EIH or SIHA competition — and what can still be reviewed once the game is over? (§The In-House Rules bar on-ice video review — the Elite League keeps it)

4. What is the single question about contact this document says it cannot answer for you? Say why neither British source answers it, and where the answer actually lives. (§What this document does not cover)

5. Your goalie asks whether the restricted area binds them. What do the two British documents say, which parts of Britain was the suspension written for, and what should the goalie — and the attacking team — do in the meantime? (§The trapezoid may not be enforced)

6. IIHF Rule 1.2 fixes one rink dimension and gives a range for the other. What does the domestic authorisation permit on top of that, and why is it not a relaxation of Rule 1.2 but a departure from it? (§Rinks are often smaller than the book says)

7. You are playing U14 and take a major for cross-checking. What should you plan for, and why is that an inference rather than the rule's own words? If you are an adult in women's hockey, does In-House Rule 101's ejection reach you? (§Age categories are British, and unisex)

8. A parent shows you a birth-year table and asks which group their child is in. What is the first thing you check about the table itself, and why does getting it wrong matter more here than in most sports? (§Age categories are British, and unisex)

9. You line up for a defensive-zone draw and your winger drifts into the circle before the drop. What happens, and what is the one kind of draw where it happens differently? Then: whose stick goes down first under the In-House Rules, why is that not the IIHF's answer — and why is it not the Elite League's either? (§Under the In-House Rules your centre is replaced for almost any faceoff violation)

10. Your league game is level at the final buzzer. What normally happens, and in which competitions is that different? Name the two Playoff Final Weekend procedures, say which of them cannot end in a shootout, and say how the In-House shootout differs from the IIHF's. (§Overtime is not universal)

11. You are an adult playing in Britain and you take a major penalty for cross-checking. Are you still in the game? What if it were a major for boarding instead? (§A first major can end your game, and adults are not exempt)

12. You take a cross-check to the head and hear the referee announce it as cross-checking rather than checking to the head. Has your opponent been given the lesser call, and what decides that? (§Officials have been told to call the foul what it is)

13. A teammate goes down and is not getting up. At an England Ice Hockey fixture, what is your club required to have at the rink, and what is only recommended? When do you call 999 rather than 111, how many red flags does the adopted guidance list, and where does "leave the helmet on" come from? (§What medical cover you can expect at the rink, and what to ask for)

14. A fight breaks out at the far end while you are in the penalty box, and your two minutes have just expired. May you leave? Which rule answers it, and what happens to a player who leaves the box and simply skates around the altercation? (§Leaving the bench or the penalty box during an altercation)

15. Your child plays U12 in IHUK's junior leagues. Which document sets the format of their games — and name three things in it that differ from the game on television. Then say what changes at U14, and what U10 games are played on. (§U12 is a different game, and neither British rule book says so)

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Key Takeaways

1. Play to the IIHF book, and find out which British layer sits on top of it. Wherever a page gives the IIHF rule, it is yours; the USA Hockey and Hockey Canada rules are not. The In-House Rules amend it in the NIHL, the SNL, women's, recreational, junior and university hockey, and the EIHL Casebook in the Elite League.

2. In EIH or SIHA competition, take the referee's call as the call. There is no on-ice video review and no Coach's Challenge there. The Elite League keeps both.

3. Keep your wingers out of the faceoff circle until the puck drops, and have a backup centre ready. Under the In-House Rules almost any violation replaces your centre, and either centre may put the stick down first. ⚠️ Neither change reaches the Elite League, but a winger in the circle still costs your centre there on most draws.

4. Wear a neck guard at any age every time you are on the ice, and leave the ice if it comes off. The In-House Rules give no warning: a 10-minute misconduct. The Elite League warns first, then climbs to a game misconduct, and covers practice. England Ice Hockey's practice rule may not reach Scotland or Northern Ireland; wear it anyway.

5. Ask your league before you hit anyone. Your competition's rules set the checking age. In IHUK's junior leagues U10 and U12 do not check and U14 up does; NIHL Divisions 1 and 2 check; the WNIHL does not. A junior who plays up takes the older game's line. Anywhere else (the EIHL, BUIHA, NIHL National, the PNIHL, the SNL), ask.

6. Look at your rink before you plan around the book's size. Under the In-House Rules, sheets below 56 m × 26 m are authorised at all levels, with two rinks limited to U16 and below — shorter, narrower or both than the IIHF's 60 m by 26–30 m.

7. Stay off the goalie, inside the crease and out. Deliberate or unnecessary contact is a minor or a major wherever they are, goal or no goal, and contact that impairs them can wipe out your goal. If they are trying to set, give ground. In the Elite League contact in the blue paint is enough to disallow a goal.

8. Goalies: play as though the trapezoid binds. England Ice Hockey's suspension is unsettled in scope and standing, and the Elite League has not suspended it. The delay-of-game minor for deliberately freezing or playing the puck to stop play outside your crease was never suspended. Attackers: assume their goalie may come out for a dump-in. Ask your league which applies.

9. Keep your stick below every opponent's shoulders in either IIHF edition. The Elite League plays 2026/27; elsewhere, ask which. A high stick is a minor, a reckless one can be a major with an ejection, an injuring one a double minor, under 2026/27 even if never carried high. Lift sticks up, not sideways, never at a player bent over the puck.

10. Skaters: drop a broken stick the moment it breaks. Playing on with it is a minor, and under the In-House Rules so is skating with it anywhere on the ice. Take a replacement handed to you, or pick up your own or a teammate's unbroken stick — never one thrown to you, and never an opponent's or a goalie's.

11. As a junior skater, even at 18, wear a cage sized to your helmet, not a full visor. From 18, wear at least a half visor; women, full face until the season after their 18th birthday. Leave the ice if your helmet comes off or your visor or cage cracks. Keep the chin strap to one finger; wear a mouthguard.

12. When the referee tells you to change a piece of equipment, change it. Under IIHF Rule 9.5, everywhere in Britain, refusing is a minor for Delay of Game, coming back out unchanged a misconduct, and a third time a game misconduct (the In-House Rules add their own jersey and cage ladders, the cage one ending in a game misconduct).

13. In women's and junior hockey, plan on a major ending your game. In women's hockey a major ejects at every age, adult included. Junior hockey reads the same way, U19 down to U10, though that is this document's inference rather than the rule's words. Confirm with your league.

14. Take junior age bands from this season's rules only. ⚠️ Every band moved a full year for 2026-27. At U12 there is no icing and offside does not stop play, ⚠️ but clear the zone when called out, or it is a delay-of-game penalty. U12 minors are three minutes, served on your own line's shifts; ask how they are counted.

15. Play as though your first major ends your game, adult or not. The IIHF book ejects on a first major for any of twenty listed fouls (twenty-two in 2026/27), no injury needed. Five more (boarding, charging, elbowing, interference and tripping) eject at the referee's judgement; assume they do. A relabelled call is not a lesser one.

16. Count your misconducts as well as your majors: two of either end your game. Under the In-House Rules kit earns misconducts too — a missing neck guard, a loose chin strap after a team warning, playing on bare-headed — and a dive is a minor plus a 10-minute misconduct. The Elite League keeps a dive to the plain minor.

17. Expect a fight to end your game. Only a plain willing fight during play is softened: in NIHL, SNL and BUIHA Varsity, and an Elite League original fight, if it is your first major (count the season; the League does not say). ⚠️ In women's hockey, and in an NIHL game's last five minutes or overtime, a fighting major ejects you.

18. Never instigate, be the aggressor or sucker-punch, and in the Elite League tie your jersey down. ⚠️ Each ejects you (a sucker punch, under 2026/27, one that injures), except a first, early Elite League instigation that is neither aggression nor your second major: a minor, a major, a ten-minute misconduct and League review. There, a jersey off before a fight, or lost untied, adds a game misconduct.

19. Treat a major as the start of a disciplinary process, not the whole bill. The referee reports every major after the game, and supplementary discipline can follow whether or not the act was penalised. ⚠️ At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, plan on at least a one-game ban for a game misconduct for checking from behind or a check to the head, a major for boarding, or any fight in the last five minutes, overtime or at the end of the game — and on missing a game in every other league or age group you are registered in. Under 16, a first offence may draw a written warning instead; a second or serious one is still a suspension.

20. If an altercation starts, stay on the bench or in the box until an official releases you. Leaving for any reason is barred, and one penalty makes an altercation. Skating around it is not staying out, and your penalty expiring is not a release. In the Elite League, leaving to join one also brings an automatic three-game minimum suspension.

21. Find out before the game how a tie is settled. Under the In-House Rules only NIHL fixtures, SNL fixtures that provide for it and BUIHA VARSITY OT games play overtime, and shootouts use three shooters (the Elite League, five). Don't plan on your best shooter taking two of the three. The NIHL National Playoff Final never goes to a shootout.

22. Before you need it, find your rink's first aider and phone, and learn all fourteen red flags. At an England Ice Hockey fixture the rink needs a first aider, a checked kit, a shared emergency plan and a phone, ⚠️ but need not have an ambulance or doctor. Nothing read here sets this for an Elite League game or for any practice.

23. Know which number to call. ⚠️ Call 999 for any red flag or other serious injury. For a head knock with none, call 111 within 24 hours (in Northern Ireland, where you cannot call 111, your GP or GP out-of-hours), and don't leave the player alone for those 24 hours.

24. For a downed player, ⚠️ also call 999 if you cannot get a response or they have any neck pain, and leave the helmet on. Both triggers are this guide's reading of CRT6 beside the British list, and can only make you call sooner. Don't move a suspected neck injury except to keep the airway clear.

25. After a concussion, the UK guidance England Ice Hockey adopted bars competition for 21 days, however you feel. It is a floor under the medical decision, not a replacement for it, and only elite athletes on an Enhanced Care pathway can be cleared sooner.

Sources — retrieved 29 July 2026; the 2026-27 documents 29 August 2026

Rules: IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, Revision 1 (published 25 July 2026) — the current British document, and the source for every amendment quoted above, including Rule 200, the junior age categories, Rule 101, the women's hockey specific playing rules whose ejection provision applies "in all cases", Rule 100.1, the women's age categories, the new Rules 10.3, 64 and 76, Section 4, the penalty-labelling instruction new for 2026-27 and read in the primary text on 1 September 2026, and Rules 9.8 and 12 — the detached-helmet, chin-strap, facial-protection and helmet–facemask-sizing provisions, all read in the primary text on 29 August 2026, together with the Jersey Requirements (Rule 9.3 Emphasis) bullets, read on 22 September 2026, whose jersey-coverage limb is the one place either edition amends the subject matter of IIHF Rule 9.5, and Rule 28, which sends supplementary discipline to the Discipline Policy of the home association, "EIH or SIHA", with the unnumbered Supplementary Discipline section after Appendix 2 that names the IHUK Department of Player Safety and the SIHA Disciplinary Committee, both read in the primary text on 29 September 2026; neither edition names Rule 9.5 or carries its escalation, searched in full · IHUK In-House Rules 2025-26, Revision 1 (published 27/10/25) — superseded, and read alongside the current edition only to establish what changed · IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 — Version 1.1, the edition the In-House Rules' Introduction names, and the foundation they amend; the whole of Rule 70, Rule 28.1 and Rule 46.2's definition of "altercation" read in the primary text on 1 September 2026, and Rules 20.7, 23.2, 23.5, 41.5, 42.5, 43.4, 45.5 and 60.7 — the reporting duty and the Disciplinary Measures clauses — read in the primary text on 25 September 2026, 41.5, 42.5, 45.5 and 60.7 word for word identical to each other and to the 2026/27 edition's, 43.4 the same sentence closing on a comma rather than a full stop; ⚠️ 23.5 and Rule 28 route to the "IIHF Disciplinary Code"; the IIHF's current Disciplinary Regulations, in effect from 6 October 2025, were read in full on 15 October 2026 and set no per-offence tariff, their §10 suspension rules governing IIHF Events only — which is why no IIHF suspension length or tariff appears on this page — what was verified is that the route exists and that the referral is mandatory; the England and Wales tariff comes from IHUK's own discipline rules, cited below, and Rules 9.5 and 12.1 — the non-conforming-equipment ladder — read in the primary text on 22 September 2026 and found word for word identical in the 2026/27 edition · IIHF Official Rule Book 2026/27 — consulted for Rules 1.7, 20.4, 20.5, 28.1, the whole of Rule 46, the whole of Rule 60, 63.2(I) and 63.2(VI), 64.1, 64.2, 69.1 to 69.4, the whole of Rule 70, 76.3, 76.4, 76.6, 76.7, 82.2, 87.1, the whole of Appendix IV and the front-matter table of changes only; not read end to end for this document · IIHF Situation Handbook 2026/27 (PDF) — Version 1.0, June 2026, and its Foreword, read on 1 September 2026 for Rule 60, Situations 60.1 to 60.13 and Rule 70, Situations 70.1 to 70.6 only; Situation 60.13's operative wording is quoted above · IIHF Situation Handbook 2025/26 (PDF) — v1.1, August 2025, read on the same date for the same rule, together with its superseded v1.0 of June 2025: both stop at Situation 60.12, and their twelve Rule 60 situations are the same as the 2026/27 book's first twelve. Rule 70, Situations 70.1 to 70.6, were read in v1.1 on 1 September 2026 and are word for word the 2026/27 book's; v1.0 was not checked for Rule 70 · England Ice Hockey Rules & Regulations 2024-2025 — mostly governance, registration and club administration rather than playing rules; cited here for Rules 1.1, 3.1 and 17.1 (England Ice Hockey's territory — each names "England and Wales"), Rule 22.3 (the restricted-area suspension) and Rule 24 Skaters' Equipment (24.3 neck guards, 24.4 chin-strap gap, 24.5 junior face cages, 24.6 the shared warning), with Rule 24 read in the primary text on 29 September 2026 · Motorpoint EIHL Casebook 26-27, Version 1.1 (8 September 2026) — the Elite League's own document, linked from its Casebook page, which describes it as showing "where EIHL rule interpretations differ from those in the IIHF Rule Book"; it was read end to end in the primary text on 22 September 2026, Preamble and contents list through to Section 11; it is cited here for the EIHL's relationship to the IIHF book, for the Elite League's own neck-protection rule (Rules 9.5 and 9.12), for how game rules are enforced during the pre-game warm-up (Rule 86.6) and who "The Proper Authorities" are in an EIHL game (Rule 28), for the Elite League keeping video review and the Coach's Challenge (Rules 37 and 38), for its embellishment minor and its DOPS fining discretion (Rule 64), for the mandatory game misconduct on a major for boarding, charging or elbowing that injures an opponent's face or head (Rules 41 and 42, elbowing separately headed), for its own fighting section and its leaving-the-bench suspension (Rule 46), for its roster, bench-staffing and starting-line-up provisions (Rules 5 and 7), for its "EIHL Addition to the IIHF Rule Book" on goaltender interference (Rule 69), for its overtime and shootout formats (Rule 84, read in the primary text on 14 October 2026), and for the absence of any Rule 27, any Rule 76 — so the face-off draw in an EIHL game is the IIHF book's unamended — and any body-checking provision. The League issues updates in season · IHUK Rules of Competition 2026-27 — fetched and read in the primary text on 10 September 2026 (all four HTTP 200), and cited here for the body-checking format, and — from the Junior and U10 documents only — the U12 and U10 playing formats: Junior, whose Game Length & Format table sets U10 "Cross-ice jamboree, non-checking", U12 "Full ice, non-checking, running clock" and U14, U16 and U19 "Full ice, checking, stop clock", whose §1 states an order of precedence running from the IIHF Rules through the IHUK In-House Rules to the Junior Rules of Competition, and that "the IHUK wording will take precedence for domestic competition", and whose §2 states that "Junior leagues are solely owned and operated by IHUK and operate between U10s through to U19s". ⚠️ The U12 format is not in that table. The table's own footnote sends it elsewhere — "U12: Playing format, including line changes, off-side rules, and penalty administration—is set out in Appendix D" — and Appendix D – U12 Competition Format & Administration is the source for every U12 provision quoted in this document: its Line Setting, Line Allocation, Line Management, Game Format, Stoppages, Line Changes, Offsides & Frozen Pucks, Icing, Netminders and Penalties headings were read in the primary text on 16 September 2026, together with that pointer and §§1–2. §10 Equipment & Kit (Junior) — the full-face, neck-guard and non-playing-bench provisions and its U19 note — and the Player Eligibility clause for the U19 National Division ("regardless of being 18+") were also read in the primary text, and §10's opening "Baseline" sentence, which points to the Rules & Regulations' Skaters' Equipment section, was re-read on 29 September 2026. Its §7 Movement of Players (girls who have played internationally) and its dispensation rule for "Female players required to prioritise WNIHL fixtures" were read on 22 October 2026 as the source for girls on junior teams. The PDF was refetched on 16 September 2026 and is unchanged from the copy read on 10 September (dated 26 August 2026), which matters because IHUK revises these in place at unchanged addresses · U10, the only one of the four to state the checking position as a rule rather than a format label — "Bodychecking is NOT allowed in U10 matches" — and also the source for the U10 playing format: its Duration and Timing of Games, Line Changes, Penalties, Face Off and reduced-ice provisions, read in the primary text on 16 September 2026 · NIHL 1 and 2 — read on 10 September 2026 in the revision then served at the 2026/08/NIHL-1-and-2-ROC-2026-2027.pdf address; England Ice Hockey has since reissued it at this one, changed only in player-eligibility wording; "NIHL | 3 x 20 minute periods | Full ice, checking, stop clock"; ⚠️ this document is titled National League Division 1 and 2 Rules of Competition, and the divisional matrix at its Appendix A sets out Divisions 1 and 2 only. Its Game Length and Format row is labelled simply "NIHL", and it states no format for NIHL National by name: the two provisions that mention NIHL National at all place it a tier above, in a definition of "senior team" for ice-time priority — "Elite League or NIHL National teams, in respect of NIHL 1 clubs" — and in a minimum filming standard, "NIHL National: Level 2 or higher". No Rules of Competition for NIHL National was read for this document, so nothing here settles whether NIHL National is checking or non-checking · WNIHL — "WNIHL U16 … Full ice, non-checking, stop clock" and "WNIHL … Full ice, non-checking, stop clock", and the only medical-cover provision any of the four carries, its Section 5 Team Eligibility bullet that clubs "are strongly recommended to appoint a registered and qualified medical practitioner", read in the primary text on 23 September 2026. All four were searched in full, and the quotations above are every body-checking statement any of them contains; none attaches a rule number to it, and no Rules of Competition was found or read for the EIHL, BUIHA or Scottish domestic competitions outside the junior structure — the EIHL Casebook cited above is a playing-rule document rather than a competition regulation, and contains no body-checking provision at all · USA Hockey Official Playing Rules 2025-29 (PDF) — Rule 304(g), the neck laceration protector required of "⁠[a]ll players, including goalkeepers, in all age classifications except Adults", read in the primary text on 1 September 2026 · Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF) — Rule 3.6(c), the BNQ-certified throat protector required "for players registered in minor and female hockey", the two North American requirements the British one is compared against in §Neck protection is mandatory, for everyone — and the In-House Rules give no warning · the IHUK Coaching Regulations and Requirements 2026-2027, linked in full below — §9 Team Requirements was read in the primary text on 22 September 2026 for its §9.3 Kit & Equipment coach PPE clause and the coach’s player-equipment duty; the rest of that document was not read, and it binds coaches rather than competitions

Medical cover and concussion — retrieved 31 August 2026, the red-flag panel read in full 19 September 2026: England Ice Hockey Rules & Regulations 2024-2025 Section 33, Match Day Protocols — Rules 33.3, 33.5, 33.6, 33.7, 33.8 and 33.9, the source for the minimum standards, the recommended practitioner and the ambulance provision, all read in the primary text · England Ice Hockey — Safer Sport — the current restatement of the 33.5 minimum standards in rendered text, and the source for England Ice Hockey's adoption of the concussion guidance · UK Concussion Guidelines for Non-Elite (Grassroots) Sport — the Sport and Recreation Alliance's own page, from which the November 2024 update downloads; the source for the 999, 111 and suspected-neck-injury sentences, and for the 21-day bar at §What medical cover you can expect at the rink — its Key points read "⁠[a]ll concussions should be managed individually, but there should be no return to competition before 21 days from injury", and its graduated return programme puts "(NOT before day 21) …" against Stage 6, "Return to sports competition", and states the bar a second time in the programme itself: "⁠[t]his stage should not be reached before day 21* (at the earliest)". The day-0 sentence above is that asterisk: the programme's footnote reads "⁠[t]he day of the concussion is Day 0", and its worked examples apply it — a concussion on Saturday 3 June is Day 0, and the earliest return to competition is Day 21, Saturday 24 June. The training bar is Stage 5: training "involving head impacts or where there may be a risk of head injury" only "⁠[w]hen free of symptoms at rest from the recent concussion for 14 days" (p. 19), and the FAQs' "Stage 5 therefore cannot start until Day 15 at the earliest" (p. 23), both read in the November 2024 PDF on 28 September 2026. The rest of that Stage 6 cell adds further conditions, every one of which delays a return rather than advancing it, and all of which are for the healthcare professional managing it rather than for the player. That programme's own Notes carry the single carve-out: some athletes, "as happens in Elite and Professional sport", are managed by healthcare professionals experienced in sports concussion management on an individualised plan, and "⁠[a]thletes who are managed in such Enhanced Care pathways may be formally cleared for an earlier return to competition"; those passages read in the November 2024 PDF on 10 September 2026 · also the source for its own red-flag list, all fourteen entries of which are quoted above — "Any loss of consciousness because of the injury", "Deteriorating consciousness (more drowsy)", "Amnesia (no memory) for events before or after the injury", "Increasing confusion or irritability", "Unusual behaviour change", "Any new neurological deficit" with its five listed examples, "Seizure/convulsion or limb twitching or lying rigid/motionless due to muscle spasm", "Severe or increasing headache", "Repeated vomiting", "Severe neck pain", "Any suspicion of a skull fracture (e.g. cut, bruise, swelling, severe pain at site of injury)", "Previous history of brain surgery or bleeding disorder", "Current 'blood-thinning' therapy" and "Current drug or alcohol intoxication" — together with the instruction that precedes them, "urgent medical assessment from an appropriate Healthcare Professional onsite or in a hospital Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department using emergency ambulance transfer if necessary". ⚠️ That panel is set in two columns, so it was read column by column from the printed page. The "Tonic posturing – lying rigid/motionless due to muscle spasm (may appear to be unconscious)" wording quoted above comes from the same guidance's visible clues list, not its red-flag list. All fourteen entries, and the instruction sentence above them, were read from the printed page of the November 2024 PDF on 19 September 2026 · Concussion Recognition Tool 6 (CRT6), Echemendia RJ et al., Br J Sports Med 2023;57:692-694 (doi:10.1136/bjsports-2023-107021) — the source of "Do not remove helmet (if present) or other equipment", one of five instructions in its "Remember" box. The two content pages of the published PDF are images rather than text, so both were read by eye on 31 August 2026 · IHUK Coaching Regulations and Requirements 2026-2027 — §5, the mandatory Basic First Aid certificate and the note that the accepted online courses confer no "qualified first aider" status, read on 31 August 2026 in the earlier revision still served at 2026/08/Coaching-Regulations-2026-2027.pdf and found the same in this revision on 14 October 2026 · IHUK Club Committee, Team Managers, Bench Support & Off-Ice Officials Regulations 2026-2027 — §7, the recommended team medic and the qualification-and-insurance requirement on anyone so designated · Scottish Sports Concussion Guidance: grassroots sport and general public, 2024 version (sportscotland) — the source for 111 as NHS 24 in Scotland ("accessing NHS24 (dial 111) within 24 hours of the injury"), its own "no return to competition before 21 days from injury", and its red-flag list of thirteen bullets, the first reading "Any loss of or deteriorating consciousness"; read 26 October 2026 · Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, FOI reply 36395-25, 18 March 2025 — the source for Northern Ireland having no 111: "the NHS 111 call system does not operate within Northern Ireland"; read 26 October 2026 · nidirect — Concussion, read 26 October 2026 — the source for the GP or GP out-of-hours route in Northern Ireland: "Call your GP or GP out of hours service for advice if you're not sure if you need medical help." The page never mentions 111

Participation — retrieved 22 October 2026: The Sex & Gender Participation Policy for Ice Hockey in the UK (PDF) (IHUK, EIH, SIH and EIHL; undated; the PDF is dated 7 March 2025), section 10.1 — mixed hockey at U11 and below, and male and female categories by sex recorded at birth from U12, with the exceptions the policy permits.

Discipline — retrieved 22 October 2026: Department of Player Safety Rules and Procedures 2026-2027 (PDF) (IHUK; in force from 1 September 2026), Section 5 for its reach — IHUK-registered participants whose club is based in England or Wales, with games in Scotland and Northern Ireland under their own policies — Section 11 and Appendix C.1 for the one-game bans and the extra game in every other league or age group, Appendix C.2 for the tariff bands, Section 8 for the immediate suspension on a discriminatory slur, and Appendices D and E for penalty points and the automatic bans they trigger. Appendix C.2 applies the late-fight ban to all leagues, and C.1 calls its tariff bands a starting maximum for first-time offences that panels adjust up or down. The document does not say in terms which on-ice call triggers a ban: the body's trigger is a reading of Appendices D, G and H — a minor carries no carry-over suspension, and the pathway starts from a major plus a game misconduct — kept to a major for boarding because the IIHF book allows a boarding major without one. Its Appendix J gives players under 16 a written warning for a first offence and does not say how that fits the one-game bans. The Elite League's Casebook names its own Department of Player Safety; whether IHUK's rules also reach Elite League fixtures is not stated.

Governing bodies: England Ice Hockey — Rules and Regulations · English Ice Hockey Association — Wikipedia (for the EIHA/EIH renaming only)

James Bloom, "UK and England Rules", Learning to Play the Game. https://learn-ice-hockey.com/foundation/uk_rules/ — licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

<a href="https://learn-ice-hockey.com/foundation/uk_rules/">UK and England Rules</a> by <a href="https://github.com/jamesdbloom">James Bloom</a>, licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC 4.0</a>.

@misc{foundation-uk-rules,
  author  = {James Bloom},
  title   = {UK and England Rules},
  howpublished = {Learning to Play the Game},
  url     = {https://learn-ice-hockey.com/foundation/uk_rules/},
  note    = {Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}