Para ice hockey words · Intermediate

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I · Intermediate · 43 words · Step 2 of 2

General terms

World Para Ice Hockey

The international federation for the sport, run inside the International Paralympic Committee. It publishes the Rulebook, the Regulations and the classification rules, and approves competitions.

Also called: WPIH

Captain

A team names a captain and up to two alternate captains from its 13 players. They alone may discuss the interpretation of the rules with the referee, and a complaint about a penalty is not an interpretation matter.

Overtime

A tied game goes to sudden-victory overtime: 5 minutes in a preliminary game after a 3-minute break, 10 minutes in a playoff, semi-final or bronze medal game, and 15 minutes in the gold medal game after a 15-minute intermission. Each side has four skaters and a goalkeeper.

Penalty shot shootout

If no one scores in overtime, three different shooters from each team take alternate shots, then one shooter at a time until one team leads after equal shots. The teams do not change ends, the centre of the ice is scraped first, and the goalkeeper cannot be replaced unless hurt.

Sledge and equipment

Frame

The main tubes of the sledge, of steel, aluminium, titanium or magnesium and 1.5 to 3 cm across. The frame must be at least 80 cm long and at least 15 cm wide, and 8.5 to 9.5 cm from the ice to its underside. It has one to four cross members (two for a player with a double amputation) and one foot rail, and no sharp edges.

Bucket

The sledge seat. The underside of the main seating area may be up to 20 cm above the ice, padding or cushions are at most 5 cm thick, and nothing may stick out more than 1 cm behind. Straps, tape or a protective shell may hold the feet, ankles, knees and hips but must not reach outside or below the frame.

Blades

A sledge has at most two blades, mounted parallel and square under the bucket and no wider apart than the bucket. Each is 16 to 32 cm long and may stick out no more than 1 cm past the blade carrier, and blades may not be plastic (except a goalkeeper's).

Front skid

The single skid at the front of the sledge, centred, fixed within 3 cm of the front of the frame and hanging 7 to 9.5 cm below it. It runs back 10 to 20 cm and may not be square or have straight edges.

Foot guard

A tubular guard at the front of the sledge that every player must have, at least 16 cm high (7.5 cm for a player with a double lower-limb amputation). It must not go outside the frame or above the feet. Players also wear ice hockey skate boots unless WPIH approves a medical exception, and a residual limb needs a hard protective shell.

See also: World Para Ice Hockey, Sledge, Frame

Heel and leg support

A heel support at most 10 cm wide, and for a player with a single amputation a second leg support for the residual limb, also at most 10 cm. The residual limb must not stick out past the frame, and there must be at least 3 cm of clearance from the ice.

Goalkeeper's stick

A goalkeeper's shaft is at most 100 cm, and the blade is 30 to 39 cm long and at most 9 cm wide. The goalkeeper may have an extra pick at the heel of the blade.

Goalkeeper's pads

One pad or shin guard per leg, at most 28 cm wide and at most 96.52 cm long. A pad may not go more than 5 cm past the frame sideways, nothing may hang more than 2.5 cm below the frame, and no plate may cover the gap between the frame and the ice.

Goalkeeper's gloves

A catching glove, which may carry securely attached picks of at most 1 cm, and a blocking glove, which may not have picks.

Rules of play

Offside

A player is offside when both blades are completely over the blue line into the attacking zone before the puck has completely crossed it. A player carrying the puck over the line ahead of it, while moving backward and in control, is not offside.

Hybrid icing

Icing is called when a team at equal or greater strength sends the puck from its own half past the opponent's goal line without anyone touching it. The linesman decides, no later than when the first skater reaches the end zone face-off spots, whether a defender or an attacker would get there first, and if it is too close to tell, icing is called. To 'gain the line' the player must touch the centre red line with the puck on the stick.

Line change

Players and goalkeepers may be changed at any time, within the length of the team bench and 3 m from the boards, and the player coming off must be out of the play before the change. During a substitution, playing the puck or intentionally making contact with an opponent while both the entering and the leaving player are on the ice is a bench minor. For a change from the bench in play, doing so inside the 3 m zone is a too-many-players penalty.

Contact with the goalkeeper

The goal crease is a space reaching up to the top of the crossbar (1.27 m). Contact between a goalkeeper and an attacker may be with the stick or any part of the body or sledge, but unnecessary contact is interference or charging.

High-sticking the puck

Stopping or batting the puck with the stick above the height of the top of the head is not allowed. Play stops, unless the puck goes to an opponent, when the referee gives the wash-out signal.

Penalties

Penalty shot

Awarded for a foul from behind when five conditions hold: the puck is outside the defending zone, the attacker has control, the foul is from behind, a reasonable scoring chance is lost, and there is no defender to pass but the goalkeeper. 'From behind' is judged by the position of the players' bodies, not of their sledges.

Teeing

Charging an opponent, or a goalkeeper in the crease, with any part of the front of the sledge, straight into the opponent. The penalty is a minor, a major with a game misconduct or a match penalty at the referee's discretion.

Tripping

Using the stick or an arm to push, pull or impede an opponent's sledge or blades so that the player falls, loses balance or loses control of the sledge. It is a minor or a major with an automatic game misconduct at the referee's discretion.

Charging with the sledge

Running, charging or deliberately making the sledge leave the ice in an attempt to check an opponent or a goalkeeper. It is a minor, a major with a game misconduct or a match penalty at the referee's discretion.

Holding the sledge

Holding an opponent, or any part of the opponent's sledge, with the hands, the stick or in any other way is a minor penalty.

Illegal equipment

Using non-approved or dangerous sledges, sticks or equipment, or wearing a glove with the palm cut away, sends the player off the ice with a warning to the team, and a second violation by the team is a ten-minute misconduct. A team may ask for a measurement: a sustained complaint brings a minor against the player and a rejected one a bench minor against the complainer.

Broken stick

A stick the referee judges unfit for play. A player with a broken stick may use any part of it to push himself to the bench, as long as he takes no part in the play, and may be handed a replacement by a teammate. A stick may not be thrown onto the ice.

Displacing the goal frame

Deliberately moving the goal frame is a minor. It is a penalty shot if done by a defender in the last two minutes of the game or in overtime, or on a clear scoring chance, and a goal if the puck would otherwise have gone in.

See also: Overtime, Frame, Puck, Penalty shot

Classification and eligibility

Sport class

Para ice hockey has a single sport class, defined by minimum impairment criteria. Only impairments that affect the lower limbs count.

Eligible impairment

A permanent impairment of one of seven types: impaired muscle power, limb deficiency, leg length difference, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, or impaired passive range of movement. Examples of the causes include spinal cord injury, amputation and cerebral palsy.

Minimum impairment criteria

An athlete needs at least one of: an amputation through the ankle on one side (or a similar loss); a loss of 10 points in both lower limbs in manual muscle testing (normal 80); ankylosis of one ankle or a knee extension deficit of at least 30 degrees; a score of 3 or less (normal 6) on the coordination tests; or one leg at least 7 cm shorter than the other. Loss of movement in the hips alone is not eligible.

Sport Class Not Eligible

The status (NE) for an athlete with no eligible impairment or who does not meet the minimum impairment criteria. Such an athlete may not compete in international competitions.

Sport class status

Shows whether an athlete must be assessed again: New (N) before a first assessment, Confirmed (C) when no further assessment is needed, Review (R) when more is needed before the next international competition, and Review with a Fixed Review Date (FRD).

Classification Not Completed

A designation (CNC), not a sport class, for an athlete who could not be classed at an evaluation session. An athlete with CNC may not compete in World Para Ice Hockey.

Manual muscle testing

The method for muscle power: classifiers test movements of the hip and the leg against resistance using the Daniels and Worthingham technique (8th edition), with the scale's scores 0, 1 and 2 all counted as 0.

Adaptive equipment

Equipment an athlete uses, such as the sledge. The minimum impairment criteria must not take into account how it changes what the athlete can do.

Player eligibility

A player must hold a WPIH licence, be a national of the country the team represents, be at least 16 on 1 January of the year of the competition, and be classified. Men and women are eligible.

Competition and officials

Three-point system

Three points for a win in regulation time, one point each for a tie after regulation, one extra point for the team that wins in overtime or the shootout, and none for a regulation loss.

Tie-breaking

Two teams level on points are separated by their game against each other. For three or more, a sub-group table of the games among them is used, then goal difference and goals scored in those games, then results against the nearest best-ranked team outside the group, and finally the seeding.

Forfeit

A game is forfeited if a team does not appear, does not resume after a break or stops playing. It is recorded 0:5 unless the real score was better for the other team, and a team that cancels a game in progress loses two points.

Team disqualification

A player can be disqualified (DSQ) from a tournament for unsportsmanlike behaviour. When three or more players of a team are disqualified, the team is disqualified and appears at the bottom of the standings with no rank.

World Championship pools

The World Championships are split by the WPIH Ranking: the top eight teams in the A-Pool, teams 9 to 14 in the B-Pool, and the rest, new teams and combined national teams (at most two nations) in the C-Pool. The figures are those of the 2020/2021 regulations.

Paralympic qualification

The Paralympic tournament takes the top five A-Pool teams from the World Championships three years into the cycle, the host nation if it qualifies under the rules, and up to three teams from a qualification tournament. The figures are those of the 2020/2021 regulations.

Three-official system

The Regulations require the 'three-officials system' defined in the Rulebook at all recognised competitions. The officials' fee table lists a referee, two linesmen and two standby officials. Only WPIH or IIHF registered officials may work recognised games.

Directorate

The body with final control over sporting matters at a recognised competition, led by a chairperson. The technical delegate, who can also be the equipment controller, checks that the rules are followed, and classifiers work at events where classification is offered.

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