Stiffer Penalties Coming In High School Hockey

A high school hockey player who gets a penalty for boarding or checking from behind will get five minutes in the penalty box instead of just two minutes. The National Federation of State High School Associations(NFHS) wants to reduce the risk of injury and believes this is one rule change that might help make the game safer.

The NFHS rule (6-4-1) will call for the automatic five-minute major penalty. The second part of the rule change, (6-7-1) calls for the major penalty plus either a misconduct penalty or game disqualification if the foul is considered flagrant and causes a headfirst crash into the boards.

The NFHS ice hockey rules committee proposed the changes and the NFHS board of directors approved the changes last month.