PrairieThunderWednesday, January 31, 2007 6:06 PM CST

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Hockey 101: The basics

By Randy Sharer
rsharer@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON -- So you’re a new ice hockey fan of the Bloomington PrairieThunder, but you think checking means the team’s king is in danger. Don’t worry.

PrairieThunder coach Derek Booth says you’ll catch onto the sport’s many rules quickly and learn to appreciate the skill of its players and the strategies of its coaches in short order.

“A few months will do it if you come regularly,” said Booth, who took up hockey at age 5. “I think we’re going to get a lot of (new) fans right off the bat who are blown away by the game of hockey and watching it live.”

As rookie fans prepare to nestle into their seats at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum for the PrairieThunder’s 7:05 p.m. home opener against the Fort Wayne Komets on Saturday, there are a few hockey basics they should know.

First, a game consists of three 20-minute periods with two 15- to 20-minute intermissions. In real time, games last an average of 2 hours, 20 minutes because the clock only runs when the puck is in play.

Each team of 19 players can have five skaters and one goaltender on the 200-by-85-foot rink at a time.

The object is to shoot the six-ounce, vulcanized rubber puck with a hockey stick into the 4-by-6-foot goal more often than the opponent does. A red light signals a score.

The inch-thick ice is kept frozen by four miles of pipe underneath.

The skaters consist of three forwards -- a right wing, a left wing and a center -- and two defensemen. The top wings typically have more goals and fewer assists than centers.

Coaches can substitute players on the fly and typically play the same three forwards together in what’s called a line for 40 to 90 seconds before they bring in another line.

Even while wearing 10 pounds of protective equipment, players can reach speeds of 30 mph, which is about twice as fast as they can run. The puck can exceed 100 mph.

Booth said he will use “3½” lines. Most coaches put their top-scoring forwards on the first line, their lesser skilled players on the second line and so forth.

The winning team is awarded two points in the league standings. In the event of a tie, each team receives a point and a shootout decides who gets an additional point. No United Hockey League games can end in a tie.

Shootouts consist of five players alternately taking penalty shots. If there is still a tie after five rounds, teams continue to alternate shots on a sudden-death basis.

The rink is divided by two blue lines into three zones: the defending zone, the neutral zone (the area between the blue lines) and the attacking zone.

Two rules limit the puck’s movement: offsides and icing.

Offsides occurs when attacking players precede the puck into the attacking zone. Players cannot pass the puck from their defensive zone to a teammate beyond the red center line. That’s a no-no as is icing, which occurs when a player passes the puck across the center red line beyond their opponents’ goal line.

The puck must be kept moving at all times. Faceoffs, the hockey equivalent of basketball’s jump ball, are used to restart play.

The UHL’s 108-page rule book (which can be found at www.theuhl.com) is enforced by eight officials at each game: a referee, two linesmen, a game timekeeper, a penalty timekeeper, an official scorer and two goal judges.

Each team has one player designated as the captain, who is allowed to discuss rule interpretations with the officials.

There are oodles of infractions that can earn a player a penalty, many of which result in that player being sent to the penalty box for various lengths of time.

Penalties create power-play opportunities for the team with fewer men in the penalty box. A penalty can end early if the team on the power play scores.

Minor penalties send the offender off for two minutes while major penalties cost five minutes and must be served in full regardless if the other team scores. A misconduct penalty lasts 10 minutes. A game misconduct penalty earns expulsion from the game. Teams can replace players lost through misconduct.

Fans can expect to see fights, but Booth doesn’t expect many.

“When it needs to be done it will be done, but a lot of the rule changes … it’s about the speed of the game, the creativity of the game, the challenge,” he said. “It’s really changed a lot.”

Minor penalties include such things as tripping, hooking, holding, roughing, elbowing, high-sticking, cross-checking, too many players on the ice, charging (leaping into an opponent), interference, delay of game and illegal equipment.

If it all seems too much to keep track of, don’t worry -- the public address announcer will help explain what’s happening. Before long, you’ll be ready to aid the referee in making calls along with 7,000 other fans at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

Key hockey terms

Checking: A player may use his hip or shoulder to bump a foe who has the puck or last touched it. Other forms of the maneuver are stick checking, sweep checking and poke checking to steal the puck.

Forechecking: Forwards can hustle into a foes’ defensive end into an attempt to keep the puck there and hopefully steal it.

Penalty box: Where players go for a specified length of time after committing an infraction.

Power play: Teams have their best opportunity to score when they have more men on the ice than their opponent due to penalties.

High-sticking: It’s illegal to strike an opponent with your stick above shoulder level.

Penalty shot: Certain violations such as tripping on a breakaway earn a team a penalty shot. The puck is placed at center ice where a player is allowed to start his approach toward the goaltender for one shot.

Slap shot: The hardest shot in hockey can rocket the six-ounce puck to speeds over 100 mph. Hockey sticks bend during the shot, giving the puck extra speed.

Wrist shot: A shot using the wrist and forearms. The shot is slower and more accurate than the slap shot and has an element of surprise because opponents have little warning it is about to be taken.

Deke: A feint with the body or the stick to fake out a defender.

Neutral zone trap: A defensive strategy to hinder an opponent from advancing through the neutral zone between the blue lines.

Zamboni: The name of the ice resurfacing machine invented by Frank Zamboni in 1949. The U.S. Cellular Coliseum has two Zambonis, which can resurface the ice in eight minutes.

Crease: A semi-circular area with a 6-foot radius in front of the goal. No attacking player my enter this area unless pushed in.

Assist: A pass or series of passes which immediately precede a goal. No more than two men can be credited for an assist on a single goal.

Freezing the puck: Pucks are actually frozen before the game to reduce their bounciness, but this refers to pinning the puck against the boards with either a stick or skates.

Slot: The alley between the two circles in front of the nets.

Stick-handling: Guiding the puck along the ice with a stick.

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