Hockey is a demanding, physical sport in which players skate at high speeds and players are allowed to make contact with the player who has control of the puck or has just passed the puck. However, hockey rules prevent illegal contact between players and there are specific infractions that can leave a team in a short-handed situation.
Physical Fouls
The NHL lists 13 specific penalties as physical fouls. These penalties include boarding, charging, checking from behind, clipping, elbowing, fighting, head-butting, illegal check to the head, kicking, kneeing, roughing, slew-footing and throwing equipment. Penalties can be two minutes, four minutes or five minutes.
Restraining Fouls
Restraining fouls by a player keep an opponent from moving from one part of the ice to the spot he wants to go. These fouls include holding, hooking, interference and tripping. These penalties result in two minutes in the penalty box for the offending player.
Stick Fouls
The NHL lists five fouls that can be committed with the hockey stick. These penalties include butt-ending, cross-checking, high-sticking, slashing and spearing. All of these penalties can be two-minute minor penalties or five-minute majors, depending on the severity of the infraction. When a stick penalty is determined to be severe -- usually by a resulting injury to the player on the receiving end of the foul -- the player is often ejected from the game and suspended for future games.
Other Fouls
The NHL lists an array of penalties that don't fall in any of the first three categories. Those penalties include delay of game, embellishment, too many men on the ice, unsportsmanlike conduct and equipment violations.
Power Play
When a team is penalized, it must skate short-handed for two minutes to five minutes. When the opponent scores a goal against an opponent that has been called for a two-minute penalty, the penalized player returns to the ice and the penalty is over. However, if a player is called for a five-minute penalty -- often referred to as a major penalty -- the penalized player does not return to the ice and the team may score an unlimited number of goals against the short-handed team.
Penalty Shot
If a player with possession of the puck has crossed the opponent's blue line and is skating in alone on the opposing goalie and is fouled from behind, he will be awarded a penalty shot by the referee. On a penalty shot, the referee places the puck on the center ice faceoff circle and the player skates in, picks up the puck and attempts to beat the goaltender with a series of moves or a hard shot. If he puts the puck in the net, it is a goal. If he doesn't, play resumes with a faceoff.
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