Penalty (ice hockey) 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 "power play", they
Penalty (ice hockey) larger fine, and the offending player is suspended indefinitely until the Commissioner rules on the issue. In NCAA hockey, a similar penalty called a game disqualification results in automatic suspension for the number of games equal to the number of game disqualification penalties the player has been assessed in that season. For statistical purposes, match penalty is counted as ten minutes in NHL and as twenty-five minutes under the IIHF rules. A penalty shot is a special case of penalty for cases in which a scoring opportunity was lost as a result of an infraction (like being tripped or hooked