Under the rules of hockey, a player who commits a penalty must leave the ice for a specified period of time. During that time, the opposing team will have more players on the ice, a situation referred to as a "power play." In Olympic hockey, power plays follow the rules of the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Penalties
Olympic hockey rules classify most penalties as either "minor" or "major." Most infractions are minor, and they consist of a two-minute penalty. Occasionally, the referee will call a "double minor" penalty on a player. This is simply two minor penalties, each of them two minutes, for a total of four minutes' worth of penalty time. More serious infractions, such as fighting and excessive roughness, are classified as major penalties. In Olympic hockey, a player guilty of a major penalty is kicked out of the game, and his team cannot replace him for five minutes. This is different from the rules in the National Hockey League, which allow a player to return after serving a five-minute major penalty.
Logistics
Under normal circumstances, each team has six players on the ice: five skaters and a goalkeeper. When both sides are at full strength, the situation is known as "five-on-five hockey" because that's how many skaters each team has available. If one team loses a skater to a penalty, the other team thus has a "five-on-four" power play. If one team loses two skaters to penalties, it's a five-on-three power play. If both teams lose players to penalties, a four-on-three power play is also possible. Matching penalties on both teams can result in four-on-four hockey --- but this isn't a power play, because neither team has an advantage in the number of skaters on the ice. Officials can call penalties on goalkeepers, but a team does not have to go without a goalie. A team can have a skater serve a goalie's minor penalty; if the goalie is kicked out of the game, the team can replace him immediately, but it must go without one skater for five minutes.
Duration
The duration of each penalty is measured in playing time or "clock time," not "real time." The penalty ends --- and the power play expires --- only when the allotted time has run off the game clock. Power plays can also expire in the event of a goal scored by the power-play team.
Power-play Goals
If a team is serving one or more minor penalties, and the opposing team scores a power-play goal, then the first minor penalty terminates --- that is, it ends immediately. If that was the only penalty the being served, then the player can return to the ice. If the player was serving a double minor, or if the team had more than one player serving minor penalties, then the first minor penalty terminates. The second minor still must be served before the team can return to full strength. Major penalties do not expire because of power-play goals. Power plays also do not expire if the shorthanded team scores a goal.
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