What are the Ice Hockey Basic Rules? – Once dominated mostly by Canadians hockey has taken huge leaps in growth in the United States in terms of TV ratings and player registrations over the last decade. In this guide, we will give you a primer on the sport and fill you in on exactly what is going on down there on the ice.

Ice Hockey Basic Rules

Set-Up

So let’s talk about the setup. Each team has six players on the ice, three forwards, a left-winger, a right-winger, and a center two defenseman and a goaltender or goalie.

Purpose of Ice Hockey

The object of the game is to shoot the Hockey puck using your stick into the opponent’s hockey net to dominate by doing the goal.

Periods

Like how basketball has quarters and soccer has halve, hockey has periods. There are three of them each lasting 20 minutes.

Participants

Now when you watch hockey on TV, there are a lot more than just those twelve people on and around the ice. While each team can only have at maximum of six players on the ice at a time. They actually dress 20 people that play in rotating ships 12 forwards, six defensemen, and two goaltenders. And finally, there are four officials on the ice policing the game, two referees and two linesmen.

Rink Size

We know who is on the ice, let’s talk about the ice itself. In North America, a standard ice hockey rink is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide. How does that compare to other sports as you might have seen you can fit a hockey rink way easily into a baseball stadium? You could also fit around three rinks into either a football or soccer field but it is not the smallest surface in major sports you could fit almost four basketball courts onto one hockey rink.

Lines and Face-offs

Now let’s talk about the lines on the ice, first right in the middle is the centerline, next, there are two blue lines that divide the rink into three zones the neutral zone and two end zones, and finally a goal line at each end. There are nine faceoff spots on the ice, one is in center two in each end zone, and four in the neutral zone.

Goalie Crease

The last thing is the goalie crease this is basically the goalie’s home where he has to stop the puck before crossing the goalie line.

Time to Start Play

At the beginning of the first period, teams line up for a faceoff at the center. The referee drops the puck and the game begins.

Well, that is about enough to start enjoying the great game of hockey.


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