Ice hockey is a sport that is played by two teams on ice the players wear ice skates on their feet and can skate across the ice at very high speeds. Under many situations, a player may not "Ice the puck", shoot the puck all the way across both the centre line and the opponent's goal line. When a player purposely directs the puck towards the opponent's goal, he or she is said to "Shoot" the puck. The six players on each team are typically divided into three forwards, two defencemen, and a goaltender.

In tournament play, as well as in the nhl playoffs, north americans favour sudden death overtime , in which the teams continue to play twenty-minute periods until a goal is scored. A professional game consists of three periods of twenty minutes, the clock running only when the puck is in play. However, in the nhl, a team always has at least three skaters on the ice.

The sport is known to be fast-paced and physical, with teams usually fielding six players at a time: one goaltender , and five players who skate the span of the ice trying to control the puck and score goals against the opposing team. Nhl rules restrict the total number of players per game to 18, plus two goaltenders. Today, the sport is played from youth through adult leagues, and in the universities of north america and internationally.

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In this case, the team designates another player to serve the minor or major; both players go to the penalty box, but only the designee may not be replaced, and he is released upon the expiration of the two or five minutes, at which point the ten-minute misconduct begins. Officials also stop play for puck movement violations, such as using one's hands to pass the puck in the offensive end, but no players are penalized for these offences.

There are a number of professional or semi-professional women's leagues in europe, most notably the swedish women's hockey league (sdhl), with ten teams in sweden, and the zhenskaya hockey league (zhhl), with seven teams in russia and one in china. Rules are now more strictly enforced, resulting in more penalties, which in turn provides more protection to the players and facilitates more goals being scored.

Body checking is also a penalty in certain leagues in order to reduce the chance of injury to players. Because ice hockey is a full contact sport, and involves players moving at high speeds, injuries can occur during play. In 1967, the nhl doubled in size to 12 teams, undertaking one of the greatest expansions in professional sports history.