Three periods
A game is three 20-minute periods of actual play. The clock stops on a whistle. The intermission is 18 minutes, or another length the League sets. Teams change ends for each period.
Guides
NHL rules of hockey
The shape of an NHL game, from the NHL Official Rules for 2026–27. Penalty times and the common calls are on the hockey penalties page. What changes at the Worlds and the Olympics is on NHL and international hockey.
The game
Who dresses
A club dresses 20 players: 18 skaters and two goalkeepers. At even strength each side has five skaters and a goalkeeper. One minor on each team, and nothing else on the clock, and both sides play four skaters against four.
One timeout
Each team gets one 30-second timeout in a game, regular season or playoffs. It has to come on a normal stoppage. The home club chooses which goal to defend to start, then the teams swap each period.
The rink
The official rink is 200 feet long and 85 feet wide, with corners on a 28-foot radius. Two blue lines split the ice into a defending zone, a neutral zone, and an attacking zone. The center red line splits the rink in half for icing.
Offside, icing, and a goal
Offside
An attacking player may not precede the puck into the attacking zone. Skates decide it, and only the blade counts. A player is offside when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line. One skate still touching that line, or still on his own side of it, and he is onside.
Icing
A team that is not short-handed ices the puck by shooting it from its own half, across the far goal line. The linesperson judges which player would touch it first, no later than the first skate reaching the end-zone face-off dots. The team that did not ice the puck then picks the end-zone face-off dot.
A goal
The puck has to go between the posts, below the crossbar, and entirely across the goal line, put there by an attacking player’s stick from in front of the goal. A defending player who puts it in his own net is charged with the goal. The last attacking player to touch it is credited, with no assist.
A high stick on the puck
Batting the puck above the normal height of the shoulders is prohibited. If the offending team is the next to control that puck, play stops. If the puck goes to an opponent, play can continue.
Points, overtime, and the playoffs
A tie after 60 minutes gives each team one point. The overtime or shootout winner takes one more. A regulation win is two points.
Regular-season overtime is five minutes of 3-on-3. The first goal wins, and the teams change ends. If it is still tied, the shootout starts with three shooters a side, then one-for-one.
In the Stanley Cup playoffs a tie after 60 minutes goes to a 15-minute intermission, then 20-minute sudden-death periods. Teams change ends for each one. The first goal wins. There is no shootout.
Source
NHL Official Rules, 2026–27. Periods are Rule 77. The dressed roster is Rule 5.1. Ends and the opening face-off are Rule 86. The rink is Rule 1.2. Offside is Rule 83. Icing is Rule 81. Goals are Rule 78. The timeout is Rule 87. Overtime and the shootout are Rule 84. Four-on-four after matching minors is Rule 19.1.
Hockey penalties · NHL and international hockey · All league guides