Penalties

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This page is a comprehensive summary of the types of penalties in hockey. This page will focus on each type of penalty and how it pertains to the timekeeper's/scorekeeper's job. This page is especially geared for those who are not too familiar with hockey's rules.

The game of hockey has five types of penalties. Under regular USA Hockey rules, the types of penalties are (in order from least severe to most severe): Minor, Major, Misconduct, Game Misconduct, and Match.

Depending on the type of game you are working, a different rulebook may be used. These include the NCAA (college) and NFHS (high school) rule books. In these rulebooks, the five types of penalties are (in order from least severe to most severe): Minor, Major, Misconduct, Game Misconduct, Game Disqualification.

Minor Penalties
Minor penalties are by far the most common penalty in hockey. When someone generally thinks of a "penalty" in hockey, they're probably thinking of a minor penalty.

Minor penalties result in the penalized player leaving the ice and sitting in the penalty box for a short period of time. During this time, the player's team skates with one less player until the penalized player is released from the penalty box.

While minor penalties are traditionally 2 minutes in length, they can be shortened to 1 minute and 30 seconds if the game is short (generally if a game has 12 minute periods). Minor penalty times are normally posted on the scoreboard, and the penalized player is allowed to leave the penalty box as soon as their penalty time expires.

A team can be serving more than one minor penalty at once, and both teams may be serving minor penalties at the same time. Provided these penalties are all separate and start at different times, they're all treated the same way. A team may have two minor penalties and be skating with 3 players instead of 5, or both teams may be serving minor penalties and the game is played with 4 players on each team.

Double Minors
If one player recieves two minor penalties on the same play, they are responsible for serving both penalties back-to-back. If minor penalties are regularly 2 minutes, for example, a double minor would be 4 minutes in length.

Power Play Goals
During a minor penalty, if the non-penalized team scores against the penalized team the minor penalty ends at that time and the penalized player is released from the penalty box.