Penalty (ice hockey) points being awarded. Penalty (ice hockey) A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for an infringement of the rules. Most penalties are enforced by sending the offending player to a penalty box for a set number of minutes. During the penalty the player may not participate in play. Penalties are called and enforced by the referee, or in some cases, the linesman. The offending team may not replace the player on the ice (although there are some exceptions, such as fighting), leaving them short-handed as opposed to full strength. When the opposing team is said to be on a
Penalty box sent-off player may be replaced if he plays in the front row of the scrum (prop or hooker) and the team has a substitute available who is capable of filling that player's position. This allows contested scrums to continue during the player's suspension. In this instance, the team must remove one player from another position for the duration of the suspension. In rugby union sevens, the sending-off period is 2 minutes, which despite being eight minutes shorter, is actually a more severe penalty for two reasons: a) a normal sevens match lasts only 14 minutes instead of the 80 used