Section 4 -Penalties

Rule 27. Penalties
(a) Penalties shall be in actual playing time, and are divided into the following classes:
1.  2 & 4 Minute Minor Penalties
2. Bench Minor Penalties
3. Major Penalties
4. Misconduct Penalties
5. Game Ejection
6. Game Misconduct Penalties
7. Gross Misconduct Penalties
8. Match Penalties
9. Penalty Shot
(b) Any player or team official may be assessed penalties at any time before, during, or after a game, when an offense is committed on the floor or off the floor before entering the dressing rooms. Any altercations occurring off the floor must be reported to the President on the official game report by the referee. A player who is assessed any penalty in the pre-game warm-up shall automatically have her name placed on the Official Game Report and be counted as one of the eligible players, as per Rule 16(a) and (b) – Players in Uniform.

Note 1: The maximum of 5 players per team being assessed Game Misconducts (as per Rule 70 (c) Note 1- Leaving the Players’ or Penalty Bench) also applies to the pre-game warm-up.
Note 2: Any unnecessary contact between opposing players after the whistle shall result in penalties being assessed as prescribed by the rules.
(c) Where the rules state that the Manager or Coach shall designate a player to serve a penalty and the Manager or Coach refuses to name a player, the Referee shall name any player of the offending team to serve the penalty.
(d) Where penalties are assessed to players of both teams at the same time, the penalized players of the Visiting Team shall take their position in the penalty bench first, in the place designated for the visiting players. Where there is no special designation they must take a position on the bench furthest from the gate.
(e) Any player, including the goaltender, shall be ejected from the game if they receive 3 penalties of any kind in the game ( Rule 32 – Game Ejection). The offending team shall be required to place a substitute player on the penalty bench to serve any time penalty. The substitute player will be permitted to return to the playing surface after the penalty time has elapsed.

Note 1: For the purposes of this rule, a double minor / 4 minute minor for Butt-Ending, Spearing, High Sticking, Cross-Checking, Slashing, Head-Butting and Head Contact will only count as one (1) penalty towards the 3-Penalty rule

Rule 28. 2 & 4 Minute Minor Penalties
(a) For a Minor penalty, any player, except a goaltender, shall be ruled off the floor for two minutes of actual playing time, during which time no substitutes shall be permitted.
(b) If, while a team is short-handed because of one or more Minor or Bench Minor penalties, the opposing team scores a goal, the first of such penalties shall automatically terminate.

Note: Coincident Minor penalties to both teams do not cause either team to be short-handed. When a goal is scored on a Penalty Shot against a team that is short-handed by reason of a Minor or Bench Minor penalty, no player of the short-handed team shall return to the floor with the scoring of the goal.
(c) When a player is assessed both a Minor and Major penalty at the same time, the Major penalty shall be served first. The same principle will apply when a player is assessed both a Minor and Match penalty at the same time. The five-minute time penalty which accompanies the Match penalty is to be served first. See Rule 38 (e).
(d) If a goal is scored against a team that is short-handed because of one or more Minor penalties, the player serving the Minor penalty with the least amount of time shall return to the floor. In the case of a player who has received a double Minor penalty, his first Minor penalty shall be terminated.
(e) When coincident Minor or coincident Minors of equal duration are imposed against players on each team during the same stoppage of play, immediate substitutions shall be made for those penalties, and such penalties shall not be taken into account for the purpose of the delayed penalty. Any differences in time or total penalty time shall be served by one or more players on the floor at the time of the infraction. Unless they have been ejected from the game, such penalized players shall take their place on the penalty bench and remain there until the first stoppage of play following the expiry of their respective penalties. Where at least one Major and/or Match penalty is assessed to each team during the same stoppage of play, the coincident Major/Match penalty rule shall take precedent over the coincident Minor penalty rule.
(f) A four minute minor penalty will be assessed to any player who commits any of the following infractions: ButtEnding (Rule 49, f), Cross-Checking (Rule 54), HeadButting (Rule 49, b), Head Contact (Rule 86, b), High Sticking (Rule 62), Slashing (Rule 79), and Spearing in a poking or jabbing motion (Rule 49, g). When such a penalty is assessed the penalized player will be required to serve the full 4 minutes of penalty time before returning to the playing surface. Should the opposing team score a power play goal as of the result of the 4 minute minor penalty the penalty will be over but the player will serve the remaining time like a Misconduct Penalty and returning to the playing surface at the first stoppage of play once the time has expired. 4:00

Rule 29. Bench Minor Penalties
(a) A Bench Minor penalty requires the team against which the penalty is assessed to play a man short for a period of two minutes of actual playing time.
(b) Whenever a Bench Minor penalty is to be assess according to the rules, if the player guilty of the actual infraction is identified by the Referee, that player shall serve the penalty except when such identified player is already on the penalty bench serving a penalty. However, if the player is not identified, then the Manager or Coach of the penalized team, through the playing Captain, shall designate any player of her team on the floor at the time of the infraction to serve the penalty.

Rule 38. Delayed Penalties
(a) If a third player of any team shall be penalized while two players of the same team are serving penalties, the penalty time of the third player shall not commence until the penalty time of one of the two penalized players has elapsed. Nevertheless, the third player penalized must at once proceed to the penalty bench, but shall be replaced on the floor by a substitute until such time as the penalty time of the penalized player shall commence.
(b) When a team has three players serving penalties at the same time and while due to the delayed penalty rule a substitute for the third player is on the floor, none of the three penalized players on the penalty bench may return to the floor until play has been stopped. When the play has been stopped, the player whose full penalty has expired may return to the play.
(c) When the penalties to the player or players have expired and the penalized team is entitled to more than four players on the floor, the Penalty Timekeeper shall permit the penalized players to return to the floor in the order of the expiry of their penalties. When the penalties of two players from the same team expire at the same time and the team is entitled to only one additional player on the surface the players shall return to the surface in the order in which their penalties were reported.
(d) In cases where Minor penalties are assessed at the same time to more than one player from the same team, those penalties shall be served in order of occurrence. Rule 38 (d) does not apply when the coincident Minor penalty rule is applied.
(e) When a Major penalty and a Minor penalty are assessed at the same time against two different players of the same team, the Penalty Timekeeper shall record the Minor as being the first penalty assessed. (See Rule 28 (c).
(f) All penalties shall be reported on the Official Game Report including any delayed penalties that may be in effect when the opposing team scores a goal. This is for the purpose of the 3-Penalty rule. The individual who committed the foul will have the offence noted on the Official Game Report with no time being served. If the foul committed by the offending player was their third penalty of the game, they shall be ejected form the game.

Rule 39. Calling of Penalties
(a) If a player on the team in possession of the ball commits an infraction of the rules which would call for a Match, Major, Misconduct, Bench Minor or Minor penalty, the Referee shall blow her whistle immediately and give the penalty(ies) to the deserving player(s). When this situation leads to a time penalty or multiple time penalties being placed on the clock to (1) team, making the team shorthanded, the ensuing face-off shall be conducted at one of the end zone face-off locations in the offending team’s defending zone. There are four (4) exceptions:
(1) When a penalty is assessed after a goal, the face off will take place at centre floor.
(2) When a penalty is assessed at the end (or before the start) of a period, the face-off wll take place at centre floor,
(3) When a gathering is taking place following a stoppage of play leading to a penalty or penalties against the defending team and one (1) or both defencemen, point players or any player coming from the players’ or penalty bench of the attacking team, enters deeply into the attacking zone (the top of the circles being the limit) the ensuing face-off will take place in the neutral zone at one of the face-off spots outside the offending team’s defending zone (see rule 57 (j)).
(4) When the non-offending team clears the ball and flooring/icing is called, the ensuing face-off will take place at one of the face-off spots in the neutral zone outside of the defending zone of the team that floored/iced the ball.

Note 1: When a time differential occurs because of multiple penalties, the ensuing face-off will take place in the shorthanded team’s defending zone. In the case of multiple penalties when no time differential occurs, the ensuing face-off will take place at the face-off spot nearest to where the stoppage of play occurred, unless otherwise stated in the rules.

Note 2: Where this rule refers to a team being shorthanded, that refers to the outcome of the penalties assessed on the particular stoppage of play. For example, if the home team is serving a time penalty and a time penalty is assessed to the visiting team on a subsequent stoppage, the visiting team is considered to be “shorthanded” as a result of the penalties assessed on that particular play even though the teams will play 4 on 4 when play resumes. In this situation, the face-off would occur in the visiting team’s defending zone.

(b) If a player on the team not in possession of the ball commits an infraction of a rule which would call for a Match, Major, Misconduct, Bench Minor or Minor penalty, the Referee shall signal the penalty by extending her arm straight up. The Referee shall blow her whistle and stop play immediately when the offending team gains possession and control of the ball.

Note 1: The play is not considered completed until the offending team gains possession and control of the ball. The resulting face-off shall be where the play was stopped, unless during the period of the delayed penalty call against the side not in possession, the side in possession floors the ball, shoots the ball from its own zone so that it goes out of bounds or is unplayable then the face-off following the stoppage of play shall take place at the face-off spot in the neutral zone nearest the defending blue line of the team shooting the ball. If the penalty to be assessed is a Minor penalty and a goal is scored on the play by the non-offending side, the Minor penalty shall not be assessed, but OTHER Minor, Bench Minor, Major, Match and Misconduct penalties shall be assessed in the normal manner, regardless of a goal being scored.
Note 2: If after the Referee has signalled a penalty, but before the whistle has been blown, a member of the non-offending team shall put the ball in her own net in any manner through no contact by the offending team, the goal shall be allowed and the penalty signalled shall be assessed in the normal manner. If the Referee signals a Minor or Bench Minor penalty(ies) against a team that is shorthanded by reason of one or more Minor or Bench Minor penalties, and a goal is scored by the non-offending side before the whistle is blown, the goal shall be allowed and the player who is serving the first Minor or Bench Minor penalty will return to the floor, while the signalled penalty(ies) shall be assessed and served in the normal manner.
(c) If further infractions are committed by the same offending player, either before or after the Referee blows her whistle, that player shall serve the penalties consecutively.
(d) The Referee has the right to stop play immediately in the case of a Match penalty. The resulting face-off will be where the play was stopped, unless the stoppage occurred in the offending player’s attacking zone, in which case the face-off is brought out to the neutral zone. 

Criteria for using both coincidental minors and majors “MOTO”
1) M Cancel as Many penalties as possible.
2) O Cancel in a way to make them only One player short.
3) T Cancel in a way to avoid Taking an extra player off the floor.
4) O Cancel using the order of Occurrence, or the order that the penalties were reported by the Referee.

Note: Start by cancelling majors, then do minors.