Rules Primer

Overview

This is the canonical rules document here: where two documents disagree about a rule, this one wins, and most other documents link here rather than restating a rule at length.

A handful of topics are deliberately owned elsewhere, because the document that teaches them can say more about them than a rules primer should. Each fact has exactly one owner, and the other documents link to it rather than duplicating it:

• Faceoffs owns the faceoff procedure, the violations, the ejection rules and the NHL/IIHF/USA Hockey splits in full. This document keeps the table of where each draw goes, plus short statements of the two things no rules reference should omit — that an encroaching winger gets the centre ejected, and that the IIHF issues a team warning instead. Take the detail from Faceoffs.
• Zone Entries owns the trail-skate drag as a technique. This document owns the offside rule itself, delayed offside, the disallowed goal and the rule-set differences.
• Rink Map and Glossary owns every rink dimension, including the goal crease and the trapezoid geometry. This document owns the trapezoid penalty.
• Goaltender owns how freezing the puck is actually enforced, because it carries the published Hockey Canada and USA Hockey interpretations.

The aim is not to reproduce the rulebook — it is to tell you what each rule actually changes about your decisions on the ice. A rule you understand only as a definition will get you caught out; a rule you understand as a constraint on where you can be and when becomes a tool. Offside is why you drag a trail skate. Icing is why a tired line dumps the puck from their own blue line instead of their own goal line. The trapezoid is why your goalie stops behind the net instead of in the corner.

Everything below is sourced to the NHL Official Rules 2025-2026, the IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26, or the USA Hockey Official Playing Rules 2025-29 — the actual rulebooks, cited by rule number. Where the three disagree, or where a claim is unverified, that is said explicitly in the text rather than smoothed over.

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1. How a Game Is Structured

The teams on the ice

Each team plays five skaters and one goaltender at even strength. A skater is any outfield player — the three forwards (a centre and two wingers) and the two defencemen, sometimes called defenders or D. The goaltender, or goalie, is the player permitted to use special equipment and to catch and hold the puck.

An NHL roster for a game is 20 players — 18 skaters and 2 goalkeepers (NHL Rule 5.1). Rec teams are usually smaller; two lines of forwards, two pairs of defence and a goalie is a common minimum, and it makes for a very long night.

Periods and the clock

A game is three periods of twenty minutes of actual play (NHL Rule 77.1; IIHF Rule 77.1; USA Hockey Rule 636(a) gives 20 minutes as the maximum period length). The clock is stop time — it runs only while the puck is in play, so a 20-minute period takes roughly 35–40 minutes of real time.

Intermissions between periods are 18 minutes in the NHL (Rule 77.2), 15 minutes at IIHF (Rule 77.2) and 15 minutes under USA Hockey (Rule 636(a)).

Teams change ends after every period (NHL Rule 86.3). This matters more than it sounds: in the second period your bench is at the far end from your defensive zone, which means the trip to the bench from a defensive-zone shift is the length of the ice. That is "the long change", and it is why second-period defensive-zone shifts are the most dangerous shifts to be caught tired on. See Game Management.

Rec-league variation: many recreational and beer leagues use shorter periods, running clock (the clock does not stop for whistles) except perhaps in the final minutes, and a hard curfew that ends the game whatever the clock says. USA Hockey formally accommodates short periods by pro-rating penalty times (Rule 402): a minor is 1:00 in periods of 12 minutes or less, 1:30 in periods of more than 12 but under 17 minutes, and 2:00 in periods of 17–20 minutes. Adult classifications always use 2:00. Check your own league's sheet — this is the single most common thing players get wrong when they move between leagues.

Stoppages

Play stops for: a goal, a penalty, offside, icing, the puck leaving the playing surface, the goalie freezing the puck, a hand pass, a puck played above shoulder height, an injury, a displaced net, or an official's judgment that the puck is unplayable or out of sight. Every stoppage restarts with a faceoff at one of nine marked spots (see section 8).

Practically: the whistle is not the end of your shift's responsibility. Two things carry on after it — the scrum around the net, and the faceoff. Both are places where undisciplined players hand over penalties and possession.

Changing on the fly

You may change players at any time during play (NHL Rule 74.1). The condition is that the player leaving the ice must be within five feet of the bench and out of the play before the substitute steps on.

The exact mechanics matter because they define the penalty:

• A substitute is considered on the ice once both of his skates are on the ice.
• If either player — the one coming on or the one going off — plays the puck, checks an opponent, or makes physical contact with an opponent while both are on the ice, that is too many men.
• If the retiring player is accidentally struck by the puck during the change, no penalty and no stoppage.
• If a player on the bench plays the puck or interferes with an opponent while still on the bench, that is interference (Rule 56), not too many men.
• You must leave via the bench, not any other exit. Leaving via the gate to the dressing room and being replaced is a bench minor.

What this means for you: the change is a defensive act, not an administrative one. Change when your team has the puck in the offensive zone or in the neutral zone going forward — never when the puck is coming at you. If the puck turns over while you are halfway to the bench, finish the trip and get off; do not turn around and play the puck, because that is the actual infraction. Your teammate stepping on is the one who plays.

Long shifts are a rules problem as well as a fitness problem. A 90-second shift ends with you on the wrong side of the puck, and the temptation to reach with your stick instead of moving your feet is what produces hooking and tripping calls. Most rec-league penalties are conditioning penalties in disguise. See Conditioning and Recovery.

Too many men on the ice

Too many men is a bench minor — two minutes, served by any player the coach designates through the captain (NHL Rules 74.2, 17.1). It can be called by either the referees or the linespersons.

Two useful details:

• If the offending team scores before the whistle goes for too many men, the goal is disallowed and the penalty is still assessed (Rule 74.2).
• A player coming out of the penalty box who is being changed for must skate to within five feet of his own bench before the change happens (Rule 74.3). Sending a fresh body over the boards while the penalised player is still crossing the ice is too many men.

Practically: count. The centre or the last defenceman back is usually the one who notices. If you step on and see six blue jerseys, get straight back off — the officials will usually allow the correction if nobody has played the puck.

Line changes at a stoppage

At a whistle, the visiting team puts its line-up on the ice first (up to five seconds), then the home team changes (up to eight seconds), and the referee lowers his hand to close the window (NHL Rule 82.2 sets out that four-step clock). That is the concrete value of home ice: the home coach gets last change and can therefore match his lines against yours.

But last change is not unconditional, and the exception lives in a different rule. Rule 82.1 — not 82.2 — grants the right in the first place, and grants it with a carve-out: "The home team may then make any desired substitution, except in cases following an icing, which does not result in the delay of the game." Later in the same rule, that exception is spelled out: "A team that is in violation of Rule 63.8 – Delaying the Game or Rule 81 – Icing shall not be permitted to make any player substitutions prior to the ensuing face-off."

Quoted in full, the clause is not ambiguous about whose icing. The two passages are the same bar — the second one names the team it falls on, "a team that is in violation of… Rule 81 – Icing" — and it pairs Rule 81 with Rule 63.8 (Delaying the Game), which is what the first paragraph's trailing "delay of the game" wording is pointing at. Rule 81.4 then repeats the bar in the same words, with the same three exceptions (replacing a goalkeeper who had come off for an extra attacker, replacing an injured player, or a penalty that changes on-ice strength) — exceptions that only make sense for the team that iced it. If the carve-out froze both benches after any icing, the later paragraph and Rule 81.4 would have nothing left to do. So: ice the puck and you cannot change, home or away; after the visitors ice it, the home team changes normally and keeps last change. That is exactly why icing is expensive — you hand the other side fresh legs and the matchup. See Faceoffs and Game Management.

After an icing, the offending team may not change at all (Rule 82.1, Rule 81.4). More on that below.

Overtime

NHL regular season (Rule 84.1, 84.4): a five-minute, sudden-death, 3-on-3 overtime, then a shootout if still tied. The shootout is three shooters a side, then sudden death; no player may shoot twice until everyone eligible has shot. A team that loses in overtime or the shootout still keeps the single point it earned by being tied after 60 minutes.

Three-on-three is a different sport. There is enormous open ice, the value of possession is extreme, and the single worst thing you can do is force a low-percentage play that gives the puck away — a turnover in 3-on-3 is very often a goal against within seconds. Note also that pulling the goalie in regular-season overtime forfeits the guaranteed point if you lose while he is off (Rule 84.2), and once he is off he cannot return on the fly — he must wait for a stoppage, or it is a bench minor.

NHL playoffs (Rule 84.5): full 20-minute sudden-death periods at 5-on-5, with 15-minute intermissions, repeated until somebody scores. No shootout, no 3-on-3.

Overtime with penalties (Rule 84.3) is fiddly but worth knowing the shape of: teams never drop below three skaters, so a power play in 3-on-3 overtime is played 4-on-3, and a two-man advantage is played 5-on-3 with the penalised team at three. Once strength evens out, the count is corrected to 3-on-3 at the next stoppage.

IIHF (Rule 84.1, 84.4–84.6): preliminary-round games get a five-minute 3-on-3 overtime then a five-shooter shootout. Playoff and bronze-medal games get ten minutes of 3-on-3 then a shootout. The gold-medal game goes to unlimited sudden-death 3-on-3 periods with 15-minute intermissions until somebody scores. Note: the IIHF rulebook text for the gold-medal game (Rule 84.6) does not state the length of each overtime period, so no figure is given here rather than a guess.

USA Hockey (Rule 638): overtime is recommended, not mandated — a 5-minute rest, then a 10-minute sudden-victory period, on-ice strength never below three skaters plus a goalie, and a shootout may be used in addition to or instead of overtime. Crucially, the rule ends with a note that affiliates and local governing bodies may make their own rules on overtime length, number of periods and shootout format.

Rec and beer leagues: most commonly, ties simply stand. Where there is overtime it is usually short (three to five minutes) and often 4-on-4 or 3-on-3, sometimes followed by a three-shooter shootout. This varies league by league, with no general practice to rely on — read your league's rules.

Timeouts

Each NHL team gets one 30-second timeout per game (Rule 87.1). IIHF Rule 87.1 also gives one 30-second timeout. USA Hockey gives one 60-second timeout (Rule 636(f)).

There are specific situations where the NHL will not grant a timeout (Rule 87.1):

• Following a faceoff violation.
• To the defensive team following an icing.
• To the defensive team when the goalie froze a puck shot in from beyond the centre red line.
• When a defending player accidentally dislodged the net.
• Once instructions have been given for a penalty shot, or at any point during a shootout.

The pattern is deliberate: all of those are situations where a team has just done something that is supposed to leave them stuck on the ice, tired. The rulebook closes the escape hatch.

IIHF Rule 87.1 lists the same exclusions in the same words, so a player under IIHF rules — which is what British league hockey runs on — gets no relief anywhere on that list. USA Hockey Rule 636(f) lists none of them. Its only restrictions are that the timeout be requested during a stoppage before the line-change procedure ends, and that a team wanting one at the same stoppage as its opponent must ask before the first timeout finishes. So the escape hatch the NHL and IIHF close is open under USA Hockey: a team there really can ice the puck and then buy its tired players a minute.

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2. Offside

The rule

Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone (NHL Rule 83.1).

The mechanics, precisely:

• Skates decide, not sticks. Your stick can be as far into the zone as you like.
• You are offside when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line.
• You are onside if either skate is in contact with the blue line, or on your own side of it, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leading edge.
• "Your own side of the line" is defined by a vertical plane rising from the leading edge of the blue line. If your skate has not yet broken that plane, you are onside — even if it is in the air. An airborne trail skate over the neutral zone is onside. This is NHL and IIHF only — under USA Hockey Rule 630(a) an airborne skate is offside, because that book requires actual skate contact with the neutral zone or the blue line. See Rule-set differences below.
• New for 2025-26: "a 'skate' is to be considered the blade of the skate only." Your boot and your ankle are irrelevant; the blade is the reference.
• The puck must completely cross the leading edge of the blue line. A puck sitting on the line is not yet in the zone.
• The blue line is 12 inches wide (Rule 1.5). That is a full foot of legal real estate.
• A player carrying the puck may cross the line ahead of it, provided he had possession and control of the puck with his stick before both skates crossed (2025-26 wording — this closed the loophole of kicking the puck ahead of yourself).

The technique consequence: drag a trail skate

Because one skate on or behind the plane keeps you onside, and because the line is a foot wide, you do not have to slow down at the blue line: you can attack it at full speed with your body and lead skate already in the zone, holding the trail blade on or behind the line until the puck crosses. Which book you are under changes how you do it — dragging the blade in contact with the line is legal under all three rule sets, but holding the trail skate in the air behind the plane is NHL and IIHF only and is offside under USA Hockey Rule 630(a), which requires skate contact. Most North American rec and youth hockey runs on USA Hockey rules; if that is you, keep the blade on the ice.

The technique itself belongs to Zone Entries — the four steps, the timing, and what it does to a defender. The same logic applies on a regroup: see Neutral Zone Systems, and Defending the Rush for the defender's side of it, which is that you cannot rely on the blue line to save you.

Delayed offside and tagging up

If attacking players have preceded the puck into the zone but the defending team is in a position to bring the puck out without delay or contact, the linesperson raises an arm and signals a delayed offside rather than blowing the whistle (NHL Rule 83.3, signal 29.7).

The delayed offside is nullified — arm drops, play carries on — if either:

1. All players of the offending team clear the zone at the same instant (skate contact with the blue line). This is tagging up. Once the arm is down, everybody may re-enter and pursue the puck.
2. The defending team passes or carries the puck into the neutral zone.

Clearing the zone requires actual skate contact — the vertical plane does not apply here. This is the one place the NHL's own wording is easy to misread, and the IIHF text spells it out: where the NHL parenthesis reads "(skate contact with the blue line)", IIHF Rule 83.3(I) reads "(skate contact with the blue line, '3D' judgement is not used in this situation)". So the airborne trail skate that keeps you onside on the entry does not clear you on a delayed offside. Coasting over the line in the air leaves the arm up. Touch the paint.

The delayed offside becomes a whistle if any attacking player, while the arm is up:

• Touches the puck, or
• Attempts to gain possession of a loose puck, or
• Forces the defending puck carrier further back into his own zone, or
• Is about to make physical contact with the defending puck carrier.

Note the second and third of those. You do not have to touch anything. Merely chasing the defenceman deeper into his own zone kills the play. That is the most commonly misunderstood part of the rule and it costs teams offensive-zone possession every game.

A nice piece of trivia with real use: a player in the zone during a delayed offside may clear it by going to the bench (both skates off the ice, in the linesperson's judgment) — but if his replacement steps on in the attacking zone, that replacement has to clear too.

What to do as a player on a delayed offside:

• If you are the one in the zone: get out, and get out cleanly to the line, do not just drift. Everyone has to be out at the same instant, so the last man decides.
• Do not touch the puck. Do not chase the D. Retreat to the line, tag up, then attack again.
• If you are the defending team: take your time. You have a free moment to make a clean breakout pass because no attacker can pressure you without ending the play. Use it — this is one of the few genuinely uncontested seconds you will get in your own zone. See Breakouts.

Disallowed goals on a delayed offside

If the puck is shot into the zone creating a delayed offside and that same shot goes in the net — directly, or off the goalie, a player, the boards, the glass, equipment or an official — the goal is disallowed, even if the attacking team had cleared the zone in the meantime (Rule 83.4). The only way the attacking team scores during a delayed offside is if the defending team puts it in their own net with no contact or action by the attacking team.

Where the faceoff goes

This is worth learning, because it is a real territorial consequence (Rule 83.6):

• Offside caused by an attacker carrying the puck over the line → faceoff at the neutral-zone spot nearest that attacking zone. You lose the zone but keep the neutral-zone draw.
• Offside caused by a shot or pass into the zone → faceoff back at the spot in the zone where that pass or shot originated. If your defenceman fired it in from his own end, the draw goes all the way back there.

So: a carried offside costs you a little; a pass-created offside can cost you 120 feet. That is a real argument for carrying the puck over the line under pressure rather than firing a hopeful pass into the zone.

Video review

An offside that leads to a goal is reviewable by Coach's Challenge (NHL Rule 38.2(a)). An unsuccessful challenge costs the challenging team a minor penalty (2:00) for delaying the game, and a double minor (4:00) for any subsequent unsuccessful challenge in the same game (Rule 38.8). Other than a challenge or the delayed-offside case above, no goal can be disallowed after the fact for offside (Rule 83.4).

Rule-set differences

• IIHF Rule 83 reaches the same place as the NHL rule on everything that matters, including the plane concept, but it is not word-for-word. It carries neither of the NHL's 2025-26 clarifications — no "blade of the skate only", and no "with his stick" in the puck-carrier clause. It adds two things the NHL text does not have: the sentence that "the question of an off-side never arises until the puck has completely crossed the leading edge of the blue line, at which time the decision is to be made"; and, in the delayed-offside clearing test, the explicit "'3D' judgement is not used in this situation" quoted above.
• USA Hockey Rule 630(a) requires contact, not a plane — and this reverses the airborne trail skate. The rule reads: "The position of the player's stick shall not be considered in all instances deciding offside. A player is considered 'offside' when the player does not have skate contact with any part of the Neutral Zone or the blue line when the puck crosses the determining edge of the blue line." The Note adds that "a player only needs to have skate contact with one skate with the blue line to be considered 'onside.'" So for a skate on the line the outcome matches the NHL — but a skate held in the air over the neutral zone is onside under the NHL and IIHF and offside under USA Hockey. If you play USA Hockey, drag the blade in contact; do not lift it.
• USA Hockey delayed offside only exists at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult (Rule 630(d)). Below those levels there is no tagging up — offside is immediate. If you coach or play youth hockey, this is a genuine difference in how you attack the line.

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3. Icing

The rule

If a team equal or superior in numerical strength to their opponent shoots, bats or deflects the puck from their own half of the ice across the opposition goal line, play is stopped (NHL Rule 81.1). The centre red line divides the ice into halves for this purpose, and the reference point is the point of last contact by the team in possession.

"Gaining the line"

To nullify a potential icing, your team must "gain the line": the puck, while on a player's stick — not a skate — must make contact with the centre red line (Rule 81.1).

This is the detail almost nobody knows. If you are carrying the puck through the neutral zone and you fire it down the ice, the question is not where you were, it is where the puck on your stick was. Carry it that extra half-stride so the puck touches the red line and you can dump it in freely. Kicking it forward over the line with your skate does not count.

Hybrid, no-touch and touch icing

There are three systems:

• Touch icing (historical): a defending skater must physically touch the puck for icing to be called. Produces high-speed races into the end boards; largely abandoned for injury reasons.
• No-touch / automatic icing: play stops the instant the puck completely crosses the goal line, whoever is chasing.
• Hybrid icing: the race is to the puck, but the linesperson must decide it by the time the first player reaches the end-zone faceoff dot — the dot is a deadline, not a finish line.

The NHL and IIHF both use hybrid icing (NHL Rule 81.1; IIHF Rule 81.1 — near-identical wording, but not identical: see the note below). The mechanism is:

1. The linesperson first judges that the puck will cross the goal line.
2. He then judges which player would touch the puck first.
3. That decision is made no later than the instant the first player reaches the end-zone faceoff dots, with the skate as the determining factor.
4. If the race is too close to call by that point, icing is called.

Note the clarification the rulebook makes explicitly: the determining factor is who would touch the puck first, not who reaches the dot first. The dot is a deadline for the decision, not the finish line of the race.

The NHL adopted hybrid icing in 2013-14 and the IIHF in 2014. USA Hockey uses automatic (no-touch) icing — Rule 624 states that "icing the puck shall have been completed the instant the puck has completely crossed the goal line", with no hybrid provision in the standing game. (Precisely: the one place "hybrid icing" does appear in the 2025-29 book is the Disabled Hockey / sled section, which reads "Automatic icing will be used at youth levels. Hybrid icing will be used in adult classification games." That does not apply to standing hockey, but the phrase is in the book.) Some rec and youth leagues use no-touch; a few still use touch icing. Ask before your first game — it changes whether you chase a dump-in at all.

The full wave-off list

Icing is not called if (NHL Rules 81.1, 81.3, 81.5, 81.6):

1. The team that shot it is shorthanded.
2. The puck goes directly off a faceoff into the far end.
3. The puck touches any part of an opposing player — stick, skate or body — before or after crossing the goal line.
4. The puck touches the opposing goalkeeper in any way.
5. The opposing goalkeeper feigns playing the puck, attempts to play it, or skates in the direction of it at any time.
6. A linesperson judges that an opposing skater (not the goalie) could have played the puck but did not. This explicitly includes a team declining to play it during a line change to avoid a too-many-men call.
7. The puck rebounds off an opponent in their own half so as to cross the shooter's own goal line — that is not icing on the shooter.
8. The puck goes into the net — that is a goal, not an icing. None of the four NHL clauses cited above says so; it is the practical effect of the icing call requiring a stoppage the goal has already produced. USA Hockey states it expressly, in Rule 624(a): "if the puck has entered the goal as a result of a legal action by the team shooting the puck, the goal shall be allowed."
9. The goalkeeper takes any action to dislodge the puck from the back of the net.
10. The attacking team gained the line as defined above.

The puck deflecting off an official does not automatically nullify a potential icing.

Two exceptions worth knowing on the shorthanded clause: when a penalty is about to expire, icing is judged at the instant the penalty expires — if the puck left the stick before expiry, no icing (Rule 81.6). And a team serving a major that fails to put a substitute on the penalty bench in time keeps playing a man down but is no longer "shorthanded" for icing purposes — icing will be called against them (Rule 81.6; the underlying substitution requirement is Rule 20.3).

USA Hockey differs on the goalie: Rule 624(b) lists five wave-offs and does not include the goalkeeper moving toward or feigning at the puck. Only actual contact by an opposing player, including the goalie, waves it off. USA Hockey also restricts the shorthanded exemption to Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult classifications (Rule 624(b)(1)) — below those levels, a shorthanded team cannot ice the puck.

The consequences

Under NHL rules, an icing costs the offending team three things:

1. A defensive-zone faceoff. And the attacking team chooses which of the two end-zone dots the draw is taken at (Rule 81.2).
2. No line change. The offending team may not substitute before the faceoff (Rules 81.4, 82.1). The exceptions are narrow: replacing a goalie who had been pulled for an extra attacker, replacing an injured player, or when a penalty has been assessed that changes on-ice strength. Players on the ice are determined at the moment the puck leaves the offending player's stick.
3. No timeout. The defensive team may not take a timeout after an icing (Rule 87.1). Nor is a commercial timeout permitted.

If a linesperson erred in calling icing, the faceoff is at centre ice (Rule 81.2) — the same remedy appears in IIHF Rule 81.2 and USA Hockey Rule 624(c).

If the defending team deliberately abstains from playing the puck to force the stoppage, the referee moves the draw to the corner spot nearest their own goal (Rule 81.2).

IIHF imposes all three consequences, in the NHL's own words. IIHF Rule 81.2 gives the attacking team the choice of dot; IIHF Rule 81.4 bars substitution with the same four exceptions; and IIHF Rule 87.1 reads "No 'time-out' shall be granted to the defensive team following an icing, following the goalkeeper causing a stoppage of play from a shoot-in from beyond the center red line, or when a defending Player accidentally dislodges the net causing a stoppage of play" — the NHL sentence with the punctuation changed. If you play under IIHF rules, which is what British league hockey runs on, treat the NHL treatment above as your own.

USA Hockey allows a line change after an icing, and a timeout. Nothing in Rule 624 restricts substitution, Rule 204 permits a change at any stoppage, and Rule 636(f) attaches no icing condition to the one 60-second timeout each team gets. This is a real difference in how tired you are allowed to be.

What this means for how you play

Icing is the tax on a bad clear. Getting the puck out of your zone matters, but getting it out legally matters more when you are tired, because the punishment for an illegal clear is a defensive-zone draw with your worst five players stuck on the ice and no way to rest.

• From your own end under pressure, the safe clear is off the glass and out along the boards or high off the glass — the puck leaves the zone, no icing, and it is very hard to intercept. A rim around the boards that carries all the way down the ice is what gets iced.
• Get the puck to the red line before you dump it. One extra stride is the whole difference between a legal dump-in and an icing.
• On the penalty kill you may ice it freely (Rule 81.6) — subject to the two exceptions immediately above, the NHL's empty-penalty-bench major and USA Hockey's classification restriction. Where it applies, shorthanded teams should use it ruthlessly: it is the single biggest structural advantage the kill has. See Special Teams.
• As the defending team chasing a dump-in under hybrid icing, the race is to the puck — but the linesperson's judgment is locked in by the time the first skate reaches the dot, so the first half of the race is the half that counts. Beating your opponent to the dot does not by itself decide it; being clearly on course to reach the puck first does. If you are clearly beaten, do not run yourself into the end boards for nothing; if you are clearly winning it, commit to retrieving it. And a race still too close to call at the dot is icing.
• As the goalie, be careful behind your net on a potential icing. Under NHL and IIHF rules, merely skating toward the puck waves the icing off and gives the other team a live puck in your corner (Rule 81.3). If you want the icing, stay put. The exception is when you are legitimately heading to the bench for an extra attacker and make no attempt on the puck — that does not wave it off.
• Do not casually poke a dumped puck as it goes by. Any touch by the defending team, including the goalie, kills the icing. On the other hand, that is exactly the trick to use when the other team is stuck and you would rather keep playing than take the faceoff.
• Boarding note: unnecessary contact with a player playing the puck on an obvious icing or offside play that drives him into the boards is explicitly boarding (Rule 41.1), and USA Hockey Rule 624(d) penalises it too. Icing races are not a licence to hit.

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4. Penalties

The types, and what each does to your team

Minor penalty (Rule 16.1) — two minutes, no substitute. Your team plays 5-on-4.

Bench minor (Rule 17.1) — two minutes served by any player except the goalkeeper, designated by the coach through the captain. Used for team infractions with no single culprit: too many men, delay of game by the bench, faceoff violations after a warning.

Double minor (Rule 18.1) — four minutes. Used for high-sticking that draws blood (Rule 60.3), butt-ending attempts (58.2), spearing attempts (62.2) and head-butting. It behaves as two separate two-minute penalties: if the other team scores in the first two minutes, only that half is washed out and the player serves the remaining two (Rule 18.2).

Major (Rule 20.1) — five minutes, no substitute, and — this is the key difference from a minor — the penalty does not end when the other team scores (Rule 20.2). The full five minutes are served no matter how many goals go in. A third major in one game is an automatic game misconduct (Rule 20.4), and a major that injures an opponent's face or head brings a game misconduct with it. Since 2021-22 all majors other than fighting are reviewed on-ice by the referee, who may confirm, reduce or rescind them (Rule 20.6).

Misconduct (Rule 22.1) — ten minutes for the player, but a substitute goes straight on, so the team does not play shorthanded (Rule 22.3). This is the most commonly misunderstood penalty in hockey: a ten-minute misconduct costs your team nothing on the scoreboard directly, it costs you a third of the game. A player whose misconduct expires stays in the box until the next stoppage.

Game misconduct (Rule 23.1) — the player is gone for the balance of the game, a substitute replaces him, and the team is not shorthanded. Ten minutes go on his record and the incident is reported for possible supplementary discipline.

Match penalty (Rule 21.1) — the most severe on-ice sanction. Imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure, or deliberately injures, an opponent. The player is sent to the dressing room immediately, five minutes are served by a designated teammate, and the player is automatically suspended until the league has ruled. Like majors, match penalties are reviewed on-ice (Rule 21.5).

Penalty shot (Rule 24) — not a time penalty at all but a restored scoring chance. The puck is placed at centre ice and the designated player skates in alone. Rules that catch people out: no rebounds (except off post or crossbar and then off the goalie straight in); the puck must be kept in motion toward the goal; the spin-o-rama is banned; a lacrosse-style "Michigan" is permitted provided the puck is never raised above shoulder height and is not released above the crossbar; the goalie must stay in his crease until the shooter touches the puck. If the shot is awarded for what would have been a minor, no minor is served regardless of the outcome (Rule 24.6).

Coincidental penalties (Rule 19) — when equal penalties are given to both teams, they cancel for on-ice strength. But there is a subtlety worth knowing: one minor to each team at the same stoppage, with nothing else on the clock, is played 4-on-4 (Rule 19.1). If a team is already shorthanded, the coincidental minors are served with immediate substitution and the strength stays as it was.

Stick fouls

These are the calls that come from using the stick as a tool against a player instead of against the puck. As a group they are the most-called infractions in adult recreational hockey, for one reason: they are what a tired or beaten player does instead of skating.

• Hooking (Rule 55) — using the stick to restrain an opponent. Stick-to-stick contact alone is not hooking. The tell is the tugging motion. Note that using the shaft above your upper hand to hold or hook is an automatic minor.
• Slashing (Rule 61) — swinging the stick at an opponent, contact or not. Non-aggressive contact to the pants or the front of the shin pads is not slashing. Any forceful chop on the body, on the opponent's stick, or on or near the hands that is not an attempt to play the puck is.
• Tripping (Rule 57) — placing the stick, knee, foot, arm, hand or elbow so as to cause an opponent to trip or fall. No fall is required for the penalty in any book, and USA Hockey's threshold is explicitly the lower of the two: Rule 639 Note 1 defines tripping as an act that causes an opponent to "lose balance or fall", so a stick in the skates that makes someone stumble is a penalty even if they stay up. If you touch the puck first and then take the man down, it is a minor for tripping but not a penalty shot.
• High-sticking (Rule 60) — contacting an opponent above the shoulders with your stick, provided their shoulders are at waist level or higher. A normal windup or follow-through on a shot is permitted, and so is accidental contact on a centre bent over at a faceoff; a wild swing at a bouncing puck is not. Injury (drawing blood or otherwise) makes it a double minor (Rule 60.3). The 2025-26 rulebook redefined this as contact above the shoulders rather than carrying the stick high.
• Cross-checking (Rule 59.1) — "the action of using the shaft of the stick between the two hands to forcefully check an opponent." That is the complete NHL definition; there is no blade-on-ice element in it. You will often hear that a blade touching the ice means it cannot be a cross-check — that phrasing is part of the playing rule in USA Hockey, whose Rule 609 (Note) defines cross-checking as "using the shaft of the stick between the two hands to forcefully check an opponent with no portion of the stick on the ice" — but it is absent from NHL Rule 59.1 and IIHF Rule 59.1. A major for cross-checking carries an automatic game misconduct.
• Spearing (Rule 62) — stabbing with the point of the blade. Double minor if you miss, major plus game misconduct if you connect, match penalty if you injure.
• Butt-ending (Rule 58) — using the shaft above your upper hand, or the butt of the stick, to jab or check. Same escalation: double minor for the attempt, major plus game misconduct for contact, match penalty for injury.
• Holding the stick (Rule 54.2) — a specific minor, announced as such. You may defend yourself against an opponent's stick, but you must release it immediately.

Practically: the whole stick-foul family collapses into one habit. Stick on the puck or stick on the ice — never stick on the player. If your stick is horizontal and touching an opponent, you are one referee's judgment away from a penalty. The defensive alternative is your feet and your body position, which is why gap control and angling are defensive skills and reaching is a defensive failure. See Body Contact and Battles and Defending the Rush.

Body fouls

• Boarding (Rule 41) — checking or pushing a defenceless opponent so that he hits the boards violently or dangerously. Severity, and therefore whether it is a minor, major or match, is at the referee's discretion based on the impact. The onus is explicitly on the checker to ensure his opponent is not defenceless — though the rulebook does allow the referee to consider whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position at the last moment. Unnecessary contact on an obvious icing or offside play that puts a man into the boards is boarding by definition.
• Charging (Rule 42) — violently checking an opponent as a result of distance travelled. It can be into the boards, into the net, or in open ice. The distinguishing feature from a legal check is the run-up.
• Checking from behind (Rule 43) — a check on a player who is unaware and unable to protect himself, with contact on the back of the body. Under NHL rules there is no minor penalty for this — Rule 43.2 says so in terms ("There is no provision for a minor penalty for checking from behind"): it is a major plus an automatic game misconduct, anywhere on the ice. USA Hockey does provide a minor option — Rule 608(a) reads "a minor plus a misconduct penalty, or a major plus a game misconduct penalty, shall be assessed for checking from behind" — but 608(b) makes the major-plus-game-misconduct mandatory where the check "recklessly endangers an opponent, or causes them to go head first into the boards or goal frame", and 608(c) escalates to a match penalty. Do not read the minor option as leniency; read it as covering the pushes that do not put anyone into the boards. The onus is always on the checker — USA Hockey Rule 608 states it in those words ("the onus is on the player delivering the check to not hit from behind"), and it is the load-bearing part of the rule: "he turned at the last second" is not a defence. The only carve-out is a deliberate turn to draw the contact, which the NHL frames as a player who "intentionally turns his body to create contact with his back."
• Elbowing (Rule 45) — use of an extended elbow, whether or not injury results. A major must be assessed if it injures the face or head, and that brings a game misconduct.
• Kneeing (Rule 50) — leading with the knee, sometimes extending the leg out. A major for kneeing carries an automatic game misconduct.
• Clipping (Rule 44) — throwing the body across or below the knees from any direction, or lowering your own body to hit at or below the knees. Major if it injures.
• Roughing (Rule 51) — a punching or slamming motion, gloved or not, usually at the head or face; also deliberately removing an opponent's helmet. It is defined as "a minor altercation not worthy of a major penalty".
• Interference (Rule 56) — the most conceptually important body foul, and the one you should actually study. The rule turns on body position: you have body position when you are in front of or beside your opponent, travelling in the same direction. From that position you may block his path, and you are entitled to the ice you are standing on — you do not have to move for anyone. What you may not do is move laterally into a player without having established position (that is a "pick"), or use your stick or free hand to lengthen his route, or check a player who is not in possession and unaware of the hit. A player who has just lost the puck may be checked, but only immediately after losing it. The 2025-26 rulebook softened the language from the referee "shall" impose a penalty to "can", formally acknowledging it as a judgment call.
• Holding (Rule 54) — any action that restrains or impedes an opponent, with or without the puck. You may use your arm in a strength move to block, provided you have body position and are not using your hands to hold.
• Illegal check to the head (Rule 48) — a hit where the head was the main point of contact and that contact was avoidable. The rule lists what "avoidable" means: whether you tried to hit through the body and picked the head through poor timing or angle or by extending upward; whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable posture; whether he changed his body or head position at the last instant. This is a minor penalty in the NHL — there is explicitly no major or game misconduct provision under Rule 48 — though a match penalty is available if the referee judges intent to injure, and supplementary discipline usually follows.
• Fighting (Rule 46) — a five-minute major. In the NHL, fighting is not an automatic ejection; the instigator gets an extra minor plus a misconduct, and the aggressor — the one who keeps throwing punches at a defenceless or unwilling opponent — is separately penalised. Deliberately removing your jersey beforehand is an unsportsmanlike minor plus a game misconduct.

Practically: two things. First, legal contact is defined by the position of your feet before the hit, not by the force of the hit. Establish position, then finish; do not chase across the ice and arrive. Second, the onus rule on defenceless players is real. If a man is facing the boards, or reaching for a puck, or has just released it, the rulebook puts the responsibility for the outcome on you. Let him go.

Other infractions

• Delay of game — puck over the glass (Rule 63.2(iii)) — a minor on any player who shoots or bats the puck directly, non-deflected, out of the playing surface from his defending zone. The determining factor is where the puck was when you hit it. Over the glass behind the bench counts; into the bench does not; directly off a faceoff does not; and it does not apply where there is no glass. This penalty is challengeable if the puck deflected on the way out (Rule 38.2(d)), and a failed challenge adds a further minor.
• Delay of game — other forms (Rule 63.2) — freezing the puck unnecessarily, deliberately displacing the net, a skater falling on or gathering the puck into his body, adjusting equipment.
• Delay of game — goalie outside the trapezoid (Rules 27.8, 63.2(viii)) — see section 7.
• Too many men (Rule 74) — covered above.
• Unsportsmanlike conduct (Rule 75) — obscene or abusive language or gestures directed at any person, hair-pulling, biting, grabbing a face mask, throwing objects onto the ice, or sitting on the boards with skates exposed during play (one warning, then minors). Escalates: minor, then misconduct, then game misconduct if you persist.
• Diving / embellishment (Rule 64) — a minor on any player who blatantly dives, embellishes a fall or reaction, or feigns injury. A goalie who deliberately initiates contact with an attacker, or acts to make incidental contact look like more, can be penalised under this rule too.
• Closing your hand on the puck (Rule 67.2) — you may catch the puck out of the air, but you must immediately place or knock it down to the ice. It is a minor if you catch it and skate with it, if you cover it on the ice to conceal it, or if you pick it up off the ice during play. If a skater falls on or gathers the puck inside his own goal crease, it is a penalty shot (Rule 67.4); outside the crease it is a minor. Note: this is a penalty, not a faceoff violation — the fact that it often happens at a draw does not change what it is.
• Hand pass (Rule 79) — you may bat or push the puck with an open hand, but play is stopped if you direct it to a teammate and your team then gains possession. No hand pass is called in your own defending zone — that is a free tool for a defenceman under pressure. The centres at a faceoff may not bat the puck with a hand until a third player has touched it, and doing so is a minor for delay of game — faceoff violation (Rule 67.2).
• High-sticking the puck (Rule 80) — playing the puck with your stick above shoulder height. The whistle is conditional, not automatic: under Rule 80.1 play stops "when a puck is struck with a high stick and subsequently comes into the possession and control of a player from the offending team" (including the player who struck it), directly or by deflection. Otherwise play continues — and it expressly continues if you batted it to an opponent or a defender batted it into his own net. A goal cannot be scored by contacting the puck above the height of the crossbar — note that the reference height for the goal is the crossbar, not the shoulders.

Broken sticks

This is a penalty, it catches beginners constantly, and almost nobody is taught it.

A broken stick is one which, in the opinion of the referee, is "unfit for normal play" (Rule 10.3). That is a judgment, not a definition — a shaft snapped in half is obvious, but so is a blade hanging off, and a stick you think is still usable may not be.

The player rule (Rule 10.3):

• You may keep playing without a stick. Rule 10.3 says so in terms: "A player without a stick may participate in the game." There is nothing wrong with backchecking, blocking a lane or finishing a check empty-handed.
• What you may not do is keep hold of the broken one. "A player whose stick is broken may participate in the game provided he drops the broken stick. A minor penalty shall be imposed for an infraction of this rule." So the instant it goes, let go of it — do not carry it to the bench while the play is still live, and above all do not play the puck with the stub. This is the version that costs beer-leaguers two minutes: they break a stick in the corner, hang on to it out of instinct, and poke at the puck with what is left.
• Getting a replacement. You may take one handed to you from your own bench, handed to you by a teammate on the ice, or you may pick up your own unbroken stick, or a teammate's, off the ice. What is penalised is that you "throw or shoot a stick to a teammate on the ice" — the IIHF's version of the same rule spells the same prohibition out as "throw, toss, slide or shoot" — or pick up and play with an opponent's stick. A skater also may not play using a goalkeeper's stick. Each of those is a minor.
• If a stick is thrown to you from the bench, you are not the one penalised — you may use it; the person who threw it earns a bench minor.

The goalkeeper rule is different, and it is the difference that matters (Rule 10.4):

• A goalie may carry on playing with a broken stick until a stoppage, or until a teammate legally hands them a new one. A goalie is not required to drop it — the opposite of the skater rule.
• The replacement must be passed hand to hand. A teammate may not throw or shoot it to them; doing so is a minor to that teammate for throwing the stick, not to the goalie for receiving it.
• A goalie may not go to the bench for a replacement. They must get it from a teammate on the ice. And a goalie may play with a skater's stick in the meantime, until a proper goalkeeper's stick reaches them.

Practically: as a skater, train the reflex — stick breaks, hand opens. Get to the bench for a new one if you can do it without leaving a hole, and play the shift stickless if you cannot. As a defenceman losing a stick in your own zone, drop it, get your body into the lane and let a forward hand you theirs. As a forward whose defenceman has lost a stick in front of the net, hand yours over — that is what the rule contemplates, and you can go to the bench far more cheaply than they can.

What actually gets called at rec level

In my reading of the rulebooks against how adult recreational hockey is officiated, the calls you should expect to see, in rough order of frequency:

1. Hooking, slashing and tripping. Overwhelmingly the most common, and overwhelmingly the product of being beaten and reaching.
2. Holding and interference. Both are usually late-arriving players grabbing rather than skating.
3. High-sticking. In leagues where most players are not used to controlling a stick in traffic, this is common, and the double minor for blood is a real risk in beer-league play where visors are not universal.
4. Too many men. Bench discipline is worse in rec hockey than anywhere else.
5. Body checking, in the very large number of rec leagues that are non-check. Officials in those leagues call contact tightly and inconsistently by NHL standards, because the standard they are applying is not the NHL's.
6. Roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct after the whistle.

Conversely, the calls you will rarely see in rec hockey: delay of game for puck over the glass (many rinks do not have full glass, and the rule does not apply where there is none), goalie trapezoid violations (most rec leagues do not have the trapezoid at all), and diving.

The practical conclusion: in rec hockey, the entire penalty-avoidance problem reduces to stop reaching with your stick, and stop being late. Both are fixed by conditioning and gap control, not by trying harder to be careful.

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5. Delayed Penalties

Two different things share this name

The rulebook's Rule 26 "Delayed Penalties" is about a third penalty to a team that already has two players in the box: the third player's clock does not start until one of the first two expires, and a substitute keeps the team at three skaters (Rule 26.1). A team never plays below three skaters plus a goalie.

What players and commentators mean by "delayed penalty" is different: it is the delayed call under Rule 15.1. That is what this section covers.

How the delayed call works

If a player of the team in control of the puck commits an infraction, the referee blows the whistle immediately.

If a player of the team not in control commits an infraction, the referee raises his arm and lets play continue (signal 29.8). Play is stopped, and the penalty imposed, when the team to be penalised gains control of the puck.

Read that condition carefully: control, not touch. A puck deflecting off a penalised-team player's skate does not end the play. Play continues until they actually have it.

Pulling the goalie

Because play cannot be stopped until the offending team gains control, the non-offending team is guaranteed possession or a stoppage. There is no risk of a goal against from open play. So the goalie skates to the bench and the team plays with a sixth attacker.

This is a tactic, not a rule — nothing in the rulebook requires it. But it is universal at every level where the goalie can be trusted to make the trip, and you should treat it as automatic.

Two rules that constrain it:

• The goalie leaving the crease legitimately to be replaced by an extra attacker is not penalised for leaving the crease if an altercation then breaks out (Rule 27.6), and does not wave off a potential icing (Rule 81.3).
• In regular-season overtime, pulling the goalie forfeits the guaranteed standings point if you lose while he is off — except when he was pulled for a delayed penalty (Rule 84.2).

What happens if you score

• Minor penalty: if the non-offending team scores during the delay, the minor is not imposed at all (Rule 15.2). It is washed out entirely — you get the goal instead of the power play. If two or more minors were coming, the captain chooses which one is washed out.
• Double minor: one half is washed out; the player serves the remaining two minutes (Rule 18.2).
• Major and match penalties are imposed regardless of whether a goal is scored (Rule 15.2).

If the non-offending team, with their net empty, puts the puck into their own goal, that is a goal for the offending team and the delayed penalty is still assessed. In regular-season overtime this ends the game immediately in the offending team's favour (Rule 84.2).

What to do as a player during a delayed penalty

• Look for your bench immediately. The moment you see the referee's arm go up and you are not directly involved in the play, the extra attacker is coming and someone has to come off. If you are the closest player to the bench and not part of the immediate play, you are the one.
• Keep the puck. The single rule of a delayed penalty is: do not give the offending team control. That means no risky cross-ice passes through the middle, no blind dumps that they will simply pick up.
• Do not force a shot from a bad angle just to "use" the extra man. A shot that misses and rims around is exactly how the offending team gains control and ends your six-on-five for a two-minute five-on-four instead. A missed shot that they collect has cost you the better of the two options.
• Regroup if the zone is not open. Take it back to your own end if you have to. You have the puck and they cannot force a whistle without taking it from you.
• Six attackers changes the shape, not the principles. Most teams simply add a fourth high forward and play a 2-1-2 or an umbrella. See Special Teams and Offensive Zone Play.
• If you are the team about to be penalised: touch the puck as fast as possible to end it. Diving on it, deflecting it out, batting it — anything that gets you control. A hand pass in your defending zone is legal (Rule 79.2) and it counts.

USA Hockey note: if a team ices the puck during a delayed penalty against their opponents, the ensuing faceoff is at a neutral-zone spot nearest the icing team's defending zone, not in their end (Rule 624(a) note). The NHL rulebook contains no equivalent provision, largely because in the NHL play would already be whistled the moment the offending team gained control.

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6. Power Play and Penalty Kill Basics

This section covers only what the rules determine. The tactics — formations, entries, seam passes, what to do when the puck goes to the corner — live in Special Teams.

The strengths you will actually see

• 5-on-4 — one minor. The standard power play.
• 5-on-3 — two overlapping minors. Lasts only as long as both are on the clock.
• 4-on-4 — one minor to each team at the same stoppage, with nothing else on the clock (Rule 19.1). Not a power play at all; both teams have a man off. Enormous open ice.
• 4-on-3 — a minor to each team while one team is already down one, or a penalty during 3-on-3 overtime (Rule 84.3).
• 3-on-3 — regular-season overtime, or the residue of overlapping penalties in overtime.

Teams never go below three skaters (Rules 26.1, 84.3). A third penalty to an already two-men-down team is queued behind the others.

When a penalty ends early

A minor or bench minor penalty terminates immediately when the opposing team scores — but only if both conditions hold (Rule 16.2):

1. The team scored against is shorthanded, and
2. The team scored against is serving a minor on the clock.

The penalty that ends is the one with the least time remaining. Two important exceptions:

• Majors do not end on a goal (Rule 20.2). Five minutes is five minutes.
• No penalty expires when a goal is scored on a penalty shot (Rules 16.2, 24.6).

Coincidental minors do not make either team shorthanded, so they do not expire on a goal either.

Shorthanded teams may ice the puck — with two exceptions

A team below the numerical strength of its opponent may shoot the puck the length of the ice with no icing called (Rule 81.6). This is the structural core of penalty killing. Every kill is built on the fact that clearing the puck costs you nothing but the time it takes them to bring it back.

It is not unconditional, and it is often stated bare when it should not be. There are two exceptions, and this document owns the wording of both.

Exception 1 — the NHL's empty penalty bench (Rule 81.6). Quoted in full: "When a team is 'short-handed' by reason of a major penalty, and they have neglected to ensure there is a player on the penalty bench to exit upon the expiry of the penalty, they will continue to play short-handed but are not permitted to ice the puck. Icing will be called. They may substitute for this penalized player at the next stoppage of play." (The underlying substitution requirement is Rule 20.3.) This is a bench administration failure rather than a playing decision, but on a five-minute major it is real: somebody must be sitting in the box ready to come out. Note also the timing test in the same rule — when a penalty is about to expire, icing is judged at the instant it expires, and a puck released before expiry is not icing.

Exception 2 — USA Hockey restricts the exemption by classification, and for most readers of this document this is the one that matters. The shorthanded nullification in Rule 624(b)(1) is prefixed with a classification limit: "(For all Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult classifications only) The offending team is short-handed (below the on-ice numerical strength of their opponent) when the puck is shot." Below those levels the nullification simply is not available, so a shorthanded team cannot ice the puck at all — an attempted length-of-the-ice clear on the kill comes straight back for a defensive-zone draw. If you play or coach youth hockey under USA Hockey rules, the single biggest structural advantage the NHL penalty kill has does not exist for you, and a kill built on clearing the length of the ice will simply feed the power play repeated defensive-zone faceoffs. (USA Hockey does, however, allow a line change after an icing — see above — so the cost is not identical.)

IIHF gives the same exemption, with the same "instant the penalty expires" test (Rule 81.6) — but the IIHF text has only those two paragraphs and does not carry the NHL's major-penalty carve-out, so internationally the exemption reads as unconditional.

Practical consequences

• On the kill, the clear is the whole game. You are not trying to make a play; you are trying to make them skate 200 feet again. Get it out, get it down, change.
• On the power play, the clock is your opponent as much as the killers are. Two minutes is roughly two possessions if you have to re-enter the zone each time. A failed entry is far more costly than a failed shot.
• When your penalty is about to expire and you are killing, the player in the box is a breakaway waiting to happen. Somebody has to call it out. See On-Ice Communication.
• 4-on-4 is not a power play and should not be played like one. Both teams have space; both teams are equally exposed to a turnover.

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7. Goaltender-Specific Rules

For the position itself, see Goaltender. This section is the rules layer.

The crease

The goal crease is the light-blue area in front of the net — 8 feet wide at the goal line, 6 feet deep at its deepest point — and it is a volume, not an area: it extends vertically four feet, to the height of the top of the goal frame (NHL Rule 1.7). Those figures come from Rink Map and Glossary, which owns the rink's geometry and gives the full Rule 1.7 construction, the goaltender's reference marks and the IIHF equivalents.

Goaltender interference

The governing principle (Rule 69.1) is stated explicitly and is not what most players think it is:

Goals are disallowed only if (1) an attacking player, by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalie's ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with the goalie, inside or outside the crease.

Inside the crease (Rule 69.3): if an attacking player initiates contact with the goalie — incidental or otherwise — and a goal is scored, the goal is disallowed. This is the strict zone. Also: if the goalie, establishing his position, initiates contact with an attacker who is in the crease and the attacker does not immediately give ground, and a goal is scored, it is disallowed and the attacker gets a minor. A player "establishes a significant position within the crease" when his body, or a substantial part of it, is in the crease for more than an instantaneous period.

Outside the crease (Rule 69.4): incidental contact is permitted, and goals stand, provided the attacking player made a reasonable effort to avoid the contact. But "a goalkeeper is not fair game just because he is outside the goal crease" — any unnecessary contact is penalised.

Rebounds and loose pucks (Rule 69.7): where a goalie and attacker are simultaneously going for a loose puck, inside or outside the crease, incidental contact is permitted and the goal counts.

Being pushed into the goalie (Rule 69.1): if a defender pushes you into the goalie, that is not contact initiated by you, provided you made a reasonable effort to avoid it. If you push a defender into his own goalie, that is treated as contact initiated by you.

Screening is legal outside the crease

Standing in the goaltender's line of sight, without contact and without being in the crease, is normally legal. Rule 69.3 disallows a goal where an attacker "establishes a significant position within the goal crease so as to obstruct the goalkeeper's vision" — the crease is what makes that illegal, not the screening.

But "no rule against it" overstates the case. Rule 69.1 clause (1) disallows a goal where an attacking player "either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper's ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal." Positioning alone is enough — no contact and no crease entry required, if the referee judges that where you stood stopped the goalie moving or defending. So the honest statement is: a clean screen from outside the paint is legal and referees allow it constantly, but it is a judgement call under 69.1, not an absolute right.

This is the single most valuable rules fact for a forward. Get in the goalie's eyes; keep your skates out of the blue paint. See Offensive Zone Play and Winger.

The trapezoid (goalkeeper's restricted area)

This section is the penalty. The geometry — the NHL figures, the depth, the IIHF metric equivalents and where the lines actually run — belongs to Rink Map and Glossary, which owns the rink's dimensions. Take them from there rather than from here.

The goalie may not play the puck behind the goal line outside the marked trapezoid behind his net. Violation is a two-minute minor for delay of game (Rules 27.8, 63.2(viii)). The determining factor is the position of the puck, not the position of the goalie.

There is exactly one exception, and it is not the one people think: the minor is not assessed when the goalie plays the puck while maintaining skate contact with his goal crease. There is no teammate-based exception and no "he was only touching it" exception.

Related, and often forgotten: a goalie who participates in the play beyond the centre red line — intentionally plays the puck or checks an opponent — takes a minor (Rule 27.7). Again, the position of the puck decides.

Who has the trapezoid: the NHL (since 2005-06), the KHL, and IIHF play (IIHF Rule 27.7). USA Hockey has no trapezoid — nothing in the 2025-29 playing rules restricts where a goalkeeper may play the puck. Most rec, beer-league and youth associations do not use it either.

⚠️ But USA Hockey is not restriction-free behind the net — it restricts where the goalie may freeze the puck, and the penalty is the same two minutes. Rule 614(c) assesses a minor for delay of game to a goalkeeper who falls on or gathers the puck and causes a stoppage when "the puck is behind the goal line and their body is entirely outside of the goal crease", or when "the puck is outside the boundaries of the 'goalkeeper's privileged' area." The rule's own Note defines that area as "an area outlined by connecting the end zone face-off spots with an imaginary line and imaginary lines from each face-off spot running perpendicular to the end boards" — a rectangle from the faceoff-dot line back to the end boards. It is far more generous than a trapezoid and it does include the ice directly behind the net, but it excludes the corners. The same area also protects the goalie: Rule 607(c) penalises checking or charging a goalkeeper "while the goalkeeper is within the goal crease or privileged area."

Practical consequence: if you play without the trapezoid, your goalie is a third defenceman on every dump-in and your breakouts can be built around him retrieving pucks in the corners — but under USA Hockey he must play those corner pucks, not smother them. If you play with it, your defencemen must retrieve everything wide, and the goalie's job is to stop the puck behind the net and leave it. Confirm which before your first game — it changes your breakout. See Breakouts.

Freezing the puck

The goalie is allowed to cause a stoppage, but only in defined circumstances. Holding the puck with the hands for longer than three seconds unless actually being checked, throwing it forward toward the opponents' net, dropping it into his pads or onto the goal net, racing out of the crease to beat an attacker to a loose puck and then jumping on it, and piling snow or obstacles near the net are each a minor (Rules 63.2, 67.3) — and the last becomes an awarded goal if the net is empty (Rule 67.5). Coming out to cut down the angle, making the save and then covering the puck is legal.

There is one further consequence that is not a penalty at all but hurts more: if the attacking team shoots the puck in from beyond the centre red line and the goalie freezes it, the faceoff is in the goalie's own end, the defending team may not change lines, and they may not take a timeout (Rules 63.8, 87.1). The attacking team also chooses which dot. In other words, a soft freeze on a routine dump-in is punished exactly like an icing.

The goalie playing the puck

Beyond the trapezoid and the red line, the goalie is a skater with the puck. He can pass, he can rim, he can set up a breakout. The rules that constrain him are:

• Hand passes by the goalie in the defending zone are legal, like anyone else's (Rule 79.2).
• The goalie cannot participate in a faceoff (Rule 76.1).
• A minor penalty to a goalie is served by a teammate who was on the ice at the stoppage, designated by the coach through the captain, and that substitute may not be changed (Rule 27.1). A penalised player may not serve a goalie's penalty.
• A goalie may not go to his bench during a stoppage for a stick, equipment or instructions without the referee's permission — otherwise he must be replaced immediately or his team takes a bench minor (Rule 27.6).
• A minor for leaving the immediate vicinity of the crease during an altercation (Rule 27.6). This is why goalies stay in their net during scrums.

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8. Faceoffs

Faceoffs owns this material and carries it in full — the procedure, the stick-down order, the restraining lines and the fifteen-foot rule, every violation, the ejection rules, the post-icing free violation, and the technique. What this section keeps is the location table, which is a rules reference you will want in one place, and the two things you must not leave this document without.

The nine spots

Every faceoff in the game must be taken at one of nine marked spots — one at centre ice, four in the neutral zone, four in the end zones — and no faceoff may be taken within 15 feet of the goal or the side boards, or anywhere other than a spot (Rule 76.2). What is painted at each of them is Rule 1.9, and belongs to Rink Map and Glossary.

Why the draw is where it is

Faceoff location is a penalty and reward system, and reading it tells you who just did what:

There is one more that changes behaviour after the whistle: if a point man or a player off the bench from the attacking team enters the zone past the outer edge of the end-zone faceoff circle during a scrum, the draw is moved out to the neutral zone (Rule 76.2). If your team has just earned a defensive-zone draw in the other end, do not go join the scrum — you will give the zone back.

The two things you must not leave without

1. A winger encroaching gets the centre ejected from the draw. Two rules do the work together, which is why both get cited: Rule 76.6 supplies the consequence — a player other than the one taking the draw moving into the faceoff circle before the drop means "the offending team's player taking the face-off shall be ejected from the face-off circle" — and Rule 76.7 enumerates the violations and adds the escalation: a second violation by the same team on the same draw is a bench minor. Both skates stay outside the circle and outside the hash marks until the puck is down; skate contact with the line is permitted, crossing it is not, and your stick may be inside provided it touches neither an opponent nor his stick. Your best faceoff man being removed because a winger leaned in early is the most consequential rules mistake a winger makes, and it is entirely avoidable.

2. ⚠️ Under IIHF rules none of that ejection language applies, and this changes how you play. A faceoff violation in the IIHF Official Rulebook 2025/26 results in a warning to the offending team, not the ejection of its centre — where the NHL text says "shall be ejected from the face-off circle", IIHF Rules 76.4, 76.6 and 76.7 say the team "shall receive a warning for a 'face-off' violation." A second violation by the same team is still a bench minor. The IIHF also lists a violation the NHL does not have: "one of the centers wins the face-off by using the skates" (IIHF Rule 76.3(VI)). Kicking the puck back with your feet is legal in the NHL and a violation internationally. So in an IIHF-derived book your winger's encroachment costs you your one warning rather than your best draw-taker, and a technique that is standard in North America burns that warning by itself. Faceoffs sets both out in full, along with the USA Hockey differences.

Two category distinctions that matter more than they look, both fully treated in Faceoffs: closing your hand on the puck is a minor penalty, not a faceoff violation (Rule 67.2), as is batting the puck with the hand to win a draw; and no timeout may be granted following a faceoff violation (Rule 87.1), so there is no way to buy yourself out of one. (On high sticks at the dot, see the high-sticking bullet in section 4: accidental contact on a centre bent over at a faceoff is explicitly not a penalty under Rule 60.1, though a wild swing at a bouncing puck still is.)

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9. Officials and Signals

Who is on the ice

The NHL uses the four-official system: two referees (orange armbands) and two linespersons.

Referees (Rule 31) have general supervision of the game and full control of all officials and players; their decision is final. They impose penalties, give the final on-ice decision on disputed goals, and one of them drops the puck to start each period. They may consult the linespersons before deciding.

Critically: referees do not call offside or icing. Rule 31.4 says so explicitly — those are the linespersons' duties, unless a linesperson is somehow unable to act.

Linespersons (Rule 32) are responsible for offside and icing, and they conduct every faceoff except the one that starts each period (Rule 32.2). They also:

• May stop play and report too many men, thrown objects, interference with an official, an illegally received stick, or bench interference.
• Must stop play for premature goalie substitution, a serious injury the referees missed, faceoff encroachment, an illegal hand pass, high-sticking the puck, icing, offside, the puck out of bounds or unplayable, a goal the referees did not see, and spectator interference.
• Must report to the referees the circumstances of majors, match penalties, misconducts, game misconducts, and abuse of officials. If a linesperson sees such an infraction by an attacking player before a goal that the referees missed, the goal is disallowed and the penalty assessed.
• May call too many men (Rule 74.2).

In rec hockey you will most often see two officials, not four, each doing both jobs. That is a genuine difference in what they can see, and it is worth adjusting your expectations accordingly.

The signals you should recognise

From Rule 29. These are the ones with immediate consequences for what you do next:

Common infraction signals worth knowing on sight: hooking (tugging both arms toward the stomach), slashing (chopping one hand across the opposite forearm), tripping (striking the leg below the knee, both skates on the ice), holding (clasping one wrist), cross-checking (both fists forward and back from the chest), interference (arms crossed in an "X" on the chest), elbowing (tapping an elbow), boarding (fist into the open palm), charging (fists rotating around each other), high-sticking (both fists clenched, one above the other, at forehead height), roughing (fist clenched, arm extended to the side), hand pass (open palm pushing forward), and checking from behind (both arms extended forward from the chest at shoulder level, palms out).

Note: three further signals are not described here because there are none to describe. For match penalty (29.24), throwing equipment (29.30) and too many men on the ice (29.32) the rulebook prints "No signal in the National Hockey League. NO SIGNAL" — the same entry it gives for head-butting and kicking below.

The rulebook also notes there is no signal in the NHL for head-butting (29.14) or kicking (29.22).

Talking to officials

The rules on this are unusually blunt. Under Rule 39 (Abuse of Officials) and Rule 75 (Unsportsmanlike Conduct), escalation is: minor, then misconduct, then game misconduct. Specifically, a penalised player who disputes a ruling after he has entered the penalty box and play has resumed gets a misconduct (Rule 75.4(iv)).

Practically:

• The standing is much narrower than most players think. Rule 6.1: "Only the Captain, when invited to do so by the Referee, shall have the privilege of discussing any point relating to the interpretation of rules." Two things follow. First, it is the captain alone — an alternate inherits the privilege only when the captain is not on the ice (Rule 6.2). Second, and more important, you do not have standing until you are invited. Approaching an official to open a discussion is not a right the letter confers.
• A complaint about a penalty is not a "rule interpretation", and complaining is itself a minor. Rule 6.1 is explicit: "Any Captain, Alternate Captain or any player who comes off the bench and makes any protest or intervention with the officials for any purpose shall be assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct under Rule 39." So the captain may ask about how a rule is being interpreted, when invited — but may not dispute a call, and is penalised for trying.
• The moment to say something is not the moment you disagree. It is at the next natural break, and only if the official opens the door.
• Ask, do not tell — and only when invited. A calm question about interpretation may get an answer. "That's terrible" gets ten minutes. Note that even the mild-sounding opener is a protest if the official did not invite it.
• You will never get a call reversed. What you can occasionally influence is what the officials are watching for. That is worth having a captain who is good at it, and worth everyone else keeping quiet.
• In rec hockey with two officials, half the ice is unwatched at any moment. Complaining that something was missed is worse than pointless — everything is missed, in both directions.

See Team Play and Culture and Mental Game.

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10. Rule Set Differences That Actually Matter

The differences below are the ones that change what you should do on the ice. Everything else is trivia.

A note on the rec column: unlike the other three, it is not one book. There is no single governing document for rec hockey, and the column describes what is common across leagues that mostly adopt USA Hockey or Hockey Canada rules with local amendments. But "no single book" is not the same as "no book at all", and it is worth knowing that published rec rulebooks do exist and can be read.

CARHA Hockey — the Canadian Adult Recreational Hockey Association — publishes a full standalone Official Rule Book, adopted wholesale by a good number of Canadian adult leagues, and it bears out most of the column:

• No trapezoid. The words do not appear anywhere in the book; there is no goalkeeper restricted area.
• Automatic icing (Rule 65(a)) — play stops when the puck crosses the goal line, and "any contact with the puck over the centre red line, with the puck continuing down over the goal line nullifies 'icing' the puck." Note also that "some CARHA Hockey Leagues will use the blue lines instead of the red line to divide the ice" for icing purposes (Rule 65(b)–(c)) — a variation with no professional equivalent.
• Body contact is itself the penalty (Rule 49(a)): a minor or major "to any player who intentionally bodies, pushes, shoves, stands in front of an opponent for the purpose of making contact, and/or does not avert body contact with an opponent." You do not need to hit anybody; failing to get out of the way is enough.
• Fighting means the dressing room. The instigator or aggressor gets a match penalty (Rule 59(a)), and a match penalty means "ordered to the dressing room immediately for the balance of the game" plus no further games until the case is dealt with by the Chairman (Rule 34(a)).
• Two twenty-minute periods, not three (Rule 84(a)), with a 10-minute intermission — though Section Seven item 21 hands period length back to "the local committee or teams" for league and exhibition games, which is exactly the kind of local variation the column is warning you about. Section Seven item 16 also runs a mercy rule: running time at a five-goal spread with 10 minutes left, with penalty lengths stretched to 3 / 7 / 12 minutes to compensate.
• The slap shot is banned outright (Rule 79(a)) — a minor, or a major if an opponent is injured. The book defines it as bringing the stick back "more than fifteen inches either on or off the ice." There is nothing like this in any of the other three books.

The ASHL (Canlan's Adult Safe Hockey League) also publishes a rulebook, but it works as an overlay rather than a replacement: it states that "the current rules issued by Hockey Canada (Canadian ASHL locations) and USA Hockey (USA-based ASHL locations) provides the foundation for game rules in the ASHL."

So the column is verifiable in outline, and CARHA is a fair representative. What it is still not is authoritative for your league: neither of those books governs you unless your league says it does. Treat the column as a prompt to go and read your own league's rules sheet.

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Common Mistakes

These are rules misconceptions players genuinely hold, and what each one costs.

• "I have to be behind the blue line." No — one skate on or behind the plane keeps you onside, and the line is a foot wide. Coasting behind the line to be safe kills your entry. Drag a trail skate and enter at speed.
• "My skate was in the air, so I was offside." Under the NHL and IIHF, no — if the blade has not broken the vertical plane of the leading edge, you are onside (NHL Rule 83.1). Under USA Hockey, yes — Rule 630(a) requires skate contact with the neutral zone or the blue line, so the airborne skate is offside. Know which book you are in.
• "During a delayed offside I just can't touch the puck." Wrong, and this one costs possession every game. Forcing the defending puck carrier deeper into his own zone or being about to make contact with him also stops play. Retreat to the line; do not chase.
• "We tagged up, so the goal counts." Not if the puck was shot in and that same shot went in. Clearing the zone afterwards has no bearing (Rule 83.4).
• "Icing is a race to the dot." It is not — Rule 81.1 says in terms that "the determining factor is which player would first touch the puck, not which player would first reach the end zone face-off dots." The race is to the puck; the dot is only where the linesperson's decision is locked in, and a race too close to call at that point is icing. Under USA Hockey's automatic icing there is no race at all.
• "I got the puck over the red line with my skate, so no icing." No. "Gaining the line" requires the puck to be on your stick when it contacts the centre red line (Rule 81.1).
• "A ten-minute misconduct puts us on the kill." It does not. A misconduct is replaced immediately and the team plays full strength (Rule 22.3). The player pays; the team does not.
• "The other team scored, so my major is over." Majors do not expire on a goal (Rule 20.2). Only minors and bench minors do, and only if the team is genuinely shorthanded and serving one.
• "I can't screen the goalie." A clean screen from outside the paint is legal, and referees allow it constantly. What is illegal is impairing him by contact, establishing a significant position inside the crease — or, under Rule 69.1, impairing his ability to move freely or defend the goal by your positioning alone. Stand in his eyes; keep your feet out of the blue paint and don't crowd him so tightly that he cannot move.
• "Any contact with the goalie is interference." Outside the crease, incidental contact is permitted if you made a reasonable effort to avoid it, and it is explicitly permitted on rebounds and loose pucks either side of the crease line (Rules 69.4, 69.7).
• "Our goalie can go get it as long as a defenceman is coming." There is no teammate-based exception to the trapezoid. The only exception is the goalie maintaining skate contact with his crease (Rule 27.8).
• "Closing my hand on the puck at the draw is a faceoff violation." It is a minor penalty (Rule 67.2). Batting the puck with the hand to win the draw is a minor for delay of game — faceoff violation. Neither is a simple "do it again".
• "Only the centre can cause a faceoff violation." The opposite is the common case: a winger encroaching gets the centre ejected from the draw (Rule 76.7). A second violation by the same team on the same draw is a bench minor — under USA Hockey Rule 613(d) it is instead a minor on the individual who committed it, not a bench minor. Under IIHF rules there is no ejection at all — the team gets a warning (IIHF Rules 76.4/76.6/76.7) — and winning a draw with your skates, legal in the NHL, is itself a violation there (IIHF Rule 76.3(VI)).
• "Every puck over the glass is a penalty." The strict-liability version applies only from your own defending zone, only if direct and non-deflected, and not into the bench, not directly off a faceoff, and not where there is no glass (Rule 63.2(iii)). But note Rule 63.2(ii): a player who deliberately shoots or bats the puck out of the playing area "from anywhere on the ice surface" takes the same minor. Outside your own end you are safe only if it was an accident.
• "The referee blows the whistle as soon as the offending team touches the puck on a delayed penalty." The condition is control, not touch (Rule 15.1). A deflection off their skate does not end it.
• "We're on a delayed penalty, so let's shoot." A missed shot they recover ends your six-on-five and downgrades you to a five-on-four. Keep the puck. Regroup if you must.
• "We're killing, we can't ice it." You can, freely, whenever you are below their numerical strength (Rule 81.6) — with the USA Hockey classification restriction noted above. Not using this is the most common penalty-kill error at rec level.
• "My stick broke, so I'll just play it out." A minor. Rule 10.3 lets you keep playing without a stick but not with a broken one — "a player whose stick is broken may participate in the game provided he drops the broken stick." Open your hand the moment it goes. And do not take a teammate's by having it thrown or slid to you on the ice; it must be handed over, or picked up off the ice (NHL and IIHF only — USA Hockey Rule 605(b) allows a replacement only from your bench or from a teammate on the ice). Your goalie is the exception: under Rule 10.4 they may carry on with a broken stick until a stoppage, and must be handed a replacement on the ice rather than fetching one from the bench.
• "I'll just tell the ref what I think." Disputing a call from the penalty box after play has resumed is an automatic misconduct (Rule 75.4(iv)). Only the captain and alternates have standing at all.
• "The rules are the rules." They are not. Trapezoid, icing type, body checking, tagging up, overtime and penalty length all vary between the NHL, IIHF, USA Hockey and your league. Read your league's sheet before your first game.

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Key Takeaways

1. One skate keeps you onside, and the blue line is a foot wide. Drag a trail skate and enter the zone at full speed instead of coasting behind the line — but keep the blade in contact if you play USA Hockey, where a raised skate is offside (Rule 630(a)), unlike the NHL and IIHF. On a delayed offside, clear the zone and tag up — every attacker in the zone, at the same instant, with a skate genuinely touching the line — and do not chase the defenceman: touching the puck, going for a loose puck, forcing him deeper, or being about to hit him all end the play. Tag-up is not universal either. Under USA Hockey Rule 630(d) the delayed offside exists only at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult; below those classifications there is no tagging up and the whistle goes immediately.
2. Under hybrid icing the race is to the puck, not the dot — the end-zone faceoff dot is only the deadline by which the linesperson must decide who would have touched the puck first, and a race too close to call at that instant is icing. And "gaining the line" means the puck on your stick touching the centre red line. Hybrid is the NHL and IIHF standard; some youth and rec leagues still play no-touch or touch icing, so check yours.
3. Icing costs you three things: a defensive-zone draw, no line change, and no timeout — all designed to keep tired players on the ice. That is the NHL and the IIHF alike, so it is the version a British player should assume; IIHF Rules 81.2, 81.4 and 87.1 impose all three in the NHL's own words. USA Hockey imposes none of the last two — Rule 624 restricts no substitution, Rule 204 permits a change at any stoppage, and Rule 636(f) puts no icing condition on time-outs. Clear off the glass and out instead. The one relief: a shorthanded team may ice the puck freely, and that single sentence is the foundation of every penalty kill — but not in every book. USA Hockey grants it only at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult (Rule 624(b)(1)), and the NHL withdraws it from a team shorthanded by a major that has left nobody on the penalty bench (Rule 81.6).
4. Minors end early when the other team scores; majors never do. And a misconduct does not shorthand your team at all.
5. Almost every rec-league penalty is a stick foul, and almost every stick foul is a conditioning failure. Stick on the puck or on the ice — never on the player.
6. Screening the goalie is legal — but "outside the crease" is not a safe harbour. Get in their eyes and keep your skates out of the blue paint, but know the actual test: Rule 69.1 disallows the goal if you impair the goalie's ability to move or defend "either by his positioning or by contact" — positioning alone is enough, wherever you stand. Outside the crease, incidental contact is permitted if you made a reasonable effort to avoid it.
7. The only trapezoid exception is skate contact with the crease — there is no teammate exception. And in most rec leagues there is no trapezoid at all, which changes your whole breakout.
8. A winger encroaching on a faceoff gets the centre thrown out; under NHL rules a second violation by that team is a bench minor. Both skates outside the line until the puck is down. Both other books differ, and the one most readers play under is USA Hockey: it keeps the ejection but makes the second violation "a minor penalty for delay of game … assessed to the player committing the second violation" (Rule 613(d)) — an individual minor, not a bench minor — and it reverses the stick-down order, the attacking player going first at every spot but centre ice (Rule 613(a)). Under IIHF rules there is no ejection at all — a violation is a warning to the team — and winning the draw with your skates is itself a violation, so a technique that is legal in the NHL costs you your one warning.
9. On a delayed penalty, the whistle comes when the offending team gains control — not when they touch it. Get off for the extra attacker, and above all do not give the puck away.
10. Find out which rule set you are playing under before your first shift. Trapezoid, icing type, checking, tagging up and penalty length all differ, and each one changes a decision you will make in the first two minutes.

Sources — retrieved 27 July 2026

Primary rulebooks: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 (PDF) — Rules 1, 5, 10, 15–29, 31–32, 38, 41–64, 67, 69, 74–87 · IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 (PDF) — Rules 27, 46, 76, 77, 81, 83, 84, 87, 101 · USA Hockey Official Playing Rules 2025-29 (PDF) — Rules 201–205, 402–403, 604, 605, 613, 615, 624, 630, 636, 638 · USA Hockey Official Rules and Casebook 2025-29 (PDF) — Casebook situations for Rules 605, 624 and 630

Rule change history: Scouting The Refs – NHL Rule Book Updates for 2025-26 · USA Hockey – 2025-29 Playing Rule Changes · USA Hockey – Rule Book & Resources

Icing rule variants and adoption dates: Icing (ice hockey) — Wikipedia

Rec-league rules: CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book, printed 2020 (PDF) — Rules 34, 49, 59, 65, 73, 79, 84 and Section Seven (Tournament General Rules) items 16 and 21, quoted from the rulebook text · ASHL (Adult Safe Hockey League) Rule Book, Fall 2025 update (PDF) and ASHL — Rule Book