Ice Hockey Glossary

Added to a second major or a second misconduct in the same game, and to a major for the infractions listed in the rule book's reference tables (Rule 20.4). With a major, the player is out for the rest of the game, and a teammate may replace them on the ice after five minutes.

A goal given by the referee without the puck crossing the line (Rule 25). The usual case is an attacker with the puck in the neutral or attacking zone, no defender between them and an empty net, who is fouled from behind or tripped. A goal is also awarded when a defender displaces the goal post, deliberately or accidentally, and takes away an imminent scoring opportunity.

Credited to the player or players, two at most, who touched the puck before the scorer, as long as no defender played or controlled it in between (Rule 78.3). A goal and an assist each count one point in a player's record. JudgeMate records the scorer and one assistant per goal, so a second assist does not reach its scorer and assist rankings.

A two-minute penalty against the team as a whole, for example for too many players on the ice (Rule 17.1). The coach, through the playing captain, names any player except the goalkeeper to serve it, and it works on the ice exactly like a minor.

One of two 30 cm blue lines that divide the ice between the goals into three zones, defending, neutral and attacking (Rule 1.5). Off-side is judged at the blue line, icing at the center red line.

Penalties of equal number and length given to both teams at the same stoppage. They cancel out for on-ice strength, both teams substitute at once, and the penalized players leave the box at the first stoppage after their time expires (Rules 19.1 and 19.2). Majors are cancelled first, then minors (Rule 19.4). In the last five minutes of regulation and in overtime, a minor against a major leaves a three-minute difference served at once as a major (Rule 19.3). The JudgeMate scoreboard applies this IIHF cancellation.

Only one shootout goal counts in the game result, credited to the winning team (Rule 84.4 XI). A game tied 2-2 and won in the shootout goes into the records as 3-2. The IIHF standings rule in JudgeMate counts that goal the same way when it works out goal difference.

Four minutes with no substitute, written as 2+2 (Rule 18.1). A goal by the opponents ends the two-minute part being served, so a goal in the first part leaves two minutes and a goal in the second part ends the penalty. If the opponents score before the whistle while the penalty is still signaled, only two minutes are served (Rule 18.2). The JudgeMate scoreboard splits a 2+2 into its two parts.

When the foul is committed by the team without the puck, the referee raises an arm and lets play continue; the whistle comes when the offending team gains control (Rule 15.1). If the other team scores in the meantime, a signaled minor is not imposed, while a major is imposed regardless (Rule 15.2).

The rule that keeps every team at three skaters or more (Rule 26.1). If a third player is penalized while two teammates are already serving, the third goes to the box at once and is replaced on the ice, and their penalty time starts only when one of the first two penalties ends. The ice hockey scoreboard runs at most two short-handing penalties per team at once, holds the third, and runs several penalties of one player one after another.

The linesperson raises an arm and lets play continue when attackers are off-side but the defending team can bring the puck out without delay (Rule 83.3). The off-side is wiped out when all attackers clear the zone at the same moment, with a skate touching the blue line, or when the defenders move the puck into the neutral zone.

A skater who replaces the goalkeeper, usually late in a game the team is losing, and also allowed in overtime (Rule 84.2). The net stays empty. If an attacker with the puck and no defender in front is fouled while the opposing net is empty, the referee awards a goal (Rule 25.3).

The referee or a linesperson drops the puck between the sticks of two opposing players to start or resume play (Rule 76.1). The rink has nine face-off spots, and a goalkeeper may not take part. After a penalty is called at a stoppage, the face-off usually moves to the offending team's defending zone (Rule 76.2).

The referee, with the IIHF's prior approval, cancels a game when a team keeps refusing to comply with the rules, and the game is also cancelled when a team cannot put the required number of players on the ice because of penalties and injuries (Rule 66.1). The proper authority then decides the result. A team that refuses to take part in a shootout loses, and the opponent gets three points (Rule 84.4 XII).

In the gold medal game of a top-category championship, a tie leads to sudden-death overtime, three on three, played period after period until a goal is scored (Rule 84.6). Each overtime period follows a 15-minute intermission with ice resurfacing, and teams change ends from the second one on. This game has no shootout.

Removes the player for the rest of the game, and a substitute may take their place (Rule 23.1). It is entered in the records as 20 penalty minutes. The referee reports it to the proper authorities, who can add further disciplinary measures (Rule 23.2).

What a team must do to cancel a potential icing: the puck, on the player's stick and not the skate, has to touch the center red line before it is shot down the ice (Rule 81.1).

The area in front of each goal, marked by a 5 cm red line (Rule 1.5). Contact with the goalkeeper in and around it is judged under Rule 69, Interference on the Goalkeeper.

A player may stop or bat the puck with an open hand, or push it along the ice. Outside the team’s own defending zone, play is stopped when the hand directs the puck to a teammate (or gives the team an advantage) and the team then gains control (Rules 79.1–79.2). In their own defending zone, a hand pass does not stop play. A puck that deflects off a hand without giving the team an advantage is not a violation.

When two teams finish level on points, the game between them decides, and the winner of that game ranks higher (Event Code 219.2).

The break between periods. It lasts 15 minutes, or a length the IIHF designates, and is timed from the end of the period (Rule 77.2). The game timekeeper shows it on the clock so spectators know when play resumes.

Called when a team at equal or greater numerical strength shoots, bats or deflects the puck from its own half beyond the opponents' goal line (Rule 81.1). A short-handed team may do it freely (Rule 81.6). The linesperson decides which player would touch the puck first, at the latest when the first player reaches the end-zone face-off dots. The team that iced the puck may not change players, and the attacking team picks the end-zone dot for the face-off (Rules 81.2 and 81.4).

The list of eligible players that the coach gives the official scorekeeper at least 60 minutes before the game (Rules 5.1 and 33.1). At IIHF championships a team representative confirms it at least two minutes before the start, and players may be added or removed until the opening face-off.

One of the on-ice officials who call icing and off-side and drop the puck at most face-offs (Rules 76.1, 81.1 and 83.1). Goals and penalties are the referees' decision (Rules 15.1 and 78.1).

Two minutes in the penalty box with no substitute allowed (Rule 16.1). A goalkeeper does not go to the box; a teammate who was on the ice serves the minor (Rule 27.1). If the opponents score while the team is short-handed, the minor with the least time left on the clock ends (Rule 16.2). The ice hockey scoreboard releases that player for you after a power-play goal.

Five minutes with no substitute, for a physical foul that recklessly endangers the opponent (Rule 20.1). A goal does not release the player, who waits until all five minutes are up (Rule 20.2). When one player gets a major and a minor at the same time, the major is served first. On the JudgeMate scoreboard a major keeps running after goals.

Ten minutes for the player, while the team stays at full strength because a substitute replaces them at once (Rules 22.1 and 22.3). When the 10 minutes run out, the player waits in the box until the next stoppage. A second misconduct in the same game brings an automatic game misconduct. The JudgeMate scoreboard runs these 10 minutes as a personal penalty that leaves the player count unchanged.

Played when a round-robin or preliminary-round game is tied after three periods. It lasts up to five minutes, is sudden death, and each team plays with three skaters and a goalkeeper (Rule 84.1). A three-minute intermission for shoveling the ice comes first, and teams do not change ends. If nobody scores, a shootout follows. On the JudgeMate scoreboard overtime is five minutes, and switching it off sends a tied game straight to the shootout.

Overtime starts three on three, and a penalty adds a skater to the other side. A team penalized in overtime plays 3 against 4; when a two-man advantage applies, the non-offending team gets five skaters against three (Rule 84.3). A team never has fewer than three skaters on the ice.

An attacking player is off-side when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line before the puck has completely crossed it (Rule 83.1). The skates decide, never the stick. One skate touching the line or still on the player's own side keeps them on-side, and a player controlling the puck with the stick before both skates cross is on-side too.

The signed record of the game with the eligible players, the goals and the assists. Names on it cannot change once the game has started (Rule 5.1), and the official scorekeeper prepares it for the referees' signature (Rule 33.1). JudgeMate does not produce an Official Game Sheet; its printable match cards are a working aid for the officials' table with no federation status.

The off-ice official who collects the line-ups, marks the captain with C and the alternates with A, records goals, scorers and assists, and signs and sends in the game sheet (Rule 33.1). In JudgeMate the organizer enters results by default. In groups and round robins the organizer can let teams enter and confirm their own scores; knockout, consolation and third-place results are confirmed by the organizer, and a referee can keep the score on the board from the QR code.

A game consists of three 20-minute periods of actual play (Rule 77.1). The game timekeeper starts the clock with the drop of the puck and stops it at every whistle and goal (Rule 34.1), so a period takes far longer than 20 minutes on the wall clock. The JudgeMate ice hockey scoreboard counts each period down from 20 minutes, and for youth or recreational games the organizer can change the period length and the number of periods.

In playoff, relegation, classification and bronze medal games, a tie after regulation leads to a sudden-death overtime of up to 10 minutes, three skaters a side (Rule 84.5). The overtime length on the JudgeMate scoreboard is fixed at five minutes and cannot be set to 10.

An unopposed attempt that restores a scoring chance lost to a foul (Rule 24.1). The puck starts on the center face-off spot and must keep moving toward the goal; rebounds do not count, and the 360-degree spin-o-rama is not allowed (Rule 24.2). A goal from a penalty shot does not release a penalized player (Rule 16.2), and the JudgeMate goal entry has an option to mark it so the penalty keeps running.

Play with more skaters on the ice than the opponent because of the opponent's penalties. The team awarded the power play chooses which end-zone face-off spot starts it (Rule 15.5). Icing still applies to the power-play team (Rule 81.1). The JudgeMate scoreboard marks the team with the advantage.

The bench where penalized players serve their time, one for each team. A player whose misconduct or coincidental penalty has expired stays in it until the next stoppage of play (Rules 19.1 and 22.1).

The off-ice official who times every penalty on the penalty clock and releases players in the order their penalties expire (Rules 35 and 26.2). When two penalties of the same team end at once, the captain tells the referee which player returns first (Rule 16.2).

The first goal ends the game. Every IIHF overtime works this way (Rules 84.1, 84.5 and 84.6), which is why a game won in overtime always ends with a one-goal margin.

Decides a tied game after a goalless overtime (Rule 84.4). Five different shooters per team shoot alternately; they do not have to be named in advance, and a coin toss decides which team chooses to shoot first or second. A skater whose penalty had not finished when overtime ended cannot shoot. The JudgeMate scoreboard has goal and miss buttons for each team, counts the attempts and shows the decision as soon as the result can no longer change, within the five rounds or in sudden death; the operator then closes the game.

A team is short-handed when it has fewer players on the ice than its opponent at the moment a goal is scored (Rule 16.2). Only then does a goal release a minor or bench minor penalty. Coincidental minors to both teams leave neither side short-handed.

When three or more teams are level on points, the IIHF ranks them in a mini-table of their games against each other: points, then goal difference, then goals scored in those games (Event Code 219.3 a–c). Next come results against the closest best-ranked team outside the group, then the next one, and finally the seeding. Once only two teams remain level, their game decides. JudgeMate applies the first three steps; a tie still left after them is shown to the organizer, who sets the order.

If the score is still level after five shooters each, shooting goes on in pairs, and the team that shot second in the first five now starts (Rule 84.4 IX). The same player may take every shot for the team. The game ends as soon as one pair of shots produces a winner.

Each team may take one 30-second time-out per game, and only during a normal stoppage of play (Rule 87.1). All players on the ice, goalkeepers included, may go to their bench. A television commercial break is an official time-out and is not charged to either team.

A bench minor penalty called when a substitute steps on before the departing player is within 1.50 m of the bench, or when either of them plays the puck or touches an opponent during the change (Rule 74.1).

A team has 22 players at most, no more than 20 skaters and 2 goalkeepers (Rule 5.1). To start a game it needs at least five skaters and one goalkeeper. In a JudgeMate club tournament the ice hockey squad list defaults to 22 names, and the organizer can raise it to 30.

IIHF standings give 3 points for a win in regulation time, 2 for a win in overtime or the shootout, 1 for a loss in overtime or the shootout and 0 for a loss in regulation (Event Code 218.1, Rule 78.1). A game can end 3-0, 2-1 or 1-2 in points, and the table has no draws. A new ice hockey bracket on JudgeMate starts with this IIHF rule set for its group tables, and a league can choose it when it records whether a game was decided in overtime. Create an ice hockey event to try it.

A game awarded without being played, for example when a team does not turn up. The IIHF Rule Book leaves the outcome of a cancelled game to the proper authority. In JudgeMate the ice hockey walkover defaults to 5-0, and the organizer can change it.