A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for an infringement of the rules. Most penalties are enforced by sending the offending player to a penalty box (sin bin) for a set number of minutes. During the penalty the player may not participate in play. Penalties are called and enforced by on-ice officials. The difference between a legal play and a penalty is open to interpretation by on-ice officials.
Power Play – A team has an advantage of having more players on the ice because the opposition team has taken a penalty and must remove a player from the game for a specified duration of time. A power play lasts for the duration of the penalty. In the case of minor penalties, the power play will end early if the team with the man advantage scores a goal.
Penalty Kill – The opposing team has a disadvantage of having less players on the ice. Player(s) must be removed to spend penalty minutes in the penalty box.
Penalties can be for stick fouls such as, high sticking, hooking and tripping, but they can be body fouls such as holding and roughing.
A minor penalty is two minutes in length. Major penalties and misconducts are for more serious offences and can be for five minutes, 10 minutes or a full match. The penalty ends immediately if a goal is scored by the opposing team.