It’s a fast sport!  The puck can travel at around 100mph, and the skaters are fast.

The game is played in three 20 minutes periods with the ice resurfaced between the periods.

The aim is to score as many goals as you can – Ice hockey does not end with a draw, so if its level score at the end of 60 minutes, the match will go to overtime and penalties shots.

When the match starts there should be 1 goalie, and 5 players  for each team.

Then the fun starts, the match faces off.  

The players are generally on the ice for about 1-2 minutes before they will switch “lines” (watch the bench here).  3 players may go off, and will be replaced by 3 other payers, and this will continue throughout the match.

As we said before Ice hockey is a fast sport, and this gives the guys a chance to recover.

Should any player get a penalty, which could be tripping, hooking, slashing, or even too many men on the ice (see above we are only allowed 5 players), the player who got the penalty will go to the penalty box, known as the sin bin.

Most penalties will be 2 minutes, but some are 5 minutes, like fighting, and some penalities can be more than this.

When this happens, the team with the person in the penalty box  will be player one player down, known as a Powerplay to the other team.

The announcer will let you know, and the score board will show who’s in the Sin Bin!