Scovone Star Magazine 2014-2015 | Page 51

Major and minor penalties are probably the most common penalties. Minor penalties are 2 min.  long although you can get a double minor if you fail so hard  that you commit two penalties before you team touches the puck. Minors are things like tripping,checking(until midget which is a league in hockey),hooking, and slashing. Tripping is when you stick your stick out to make a player fall or purposely fall down to make another player fall over you. Checking is when you deliberately hit another player to separate them from the puck. Hooking is when you put the blade of your stick around another player. Slashing is when you hit another player with your stick to hurt them. Majors are more serious which you can tell by the name. Majors last 5min.  over double the length of a minor. One example is boarding. Boarding is when you push someone into the boards really hard. Sometimes players will get seriously injured or DIE from boardings so watch out! Now let’s proceed on to match and misconduct penalties. Match penalties are awarded to two players that get into a fight. Match penalties make a player sit out for ten min.  but the team does not have to play short handed. Referees also must report a match penalty immediately after a game to the owner. Misconduct penalties are things like saying rude things to the reffs and other players. Misconduct are also 10min.  long and do not cause a team to play short handed. Along with all that you are also fined $100 for a misconduct penalty. That’ll end match and misconduct and rules as we go onto our last section: Equipment. SPORTS Equipment Equipment is a pretty important part of the game. You can’t play without it. We will start off with the upper body gear. Gear that is above the hips. The helmet is the first piece of  into equipment we will talk about. The helmet covers your head with a visor or a cage covering your face(visors only cover your eyes). The neck guard is next. Neck guards protect your neck and most are made out of kevlar making them strong,light,and comfortable. Elbow pads are next and protect your elbow and a little bit up and down. Chest protectors protect your shoulders,chest,and belly. The last piece of equipment is the gloves. The gloves protect your hands and wrists. Now onto lower body equipment. First is hockey pants which protect your bottom,hips,and thighs. Next is your socks. Socks cover you shin guards and usually signify your team with your colors. Shin guards protect your knee down to your ankles. Second to last is your skates. Skates have sharp blades allowing players to dig into the ice. Skates protect your feet and ankles. Now we head to our last section:Sticks. Sticks are used to propel the puck down the ice,stick handle ,or shoot the puck. Sticks look like long rodes with curved blades on the end. Sticks can be no more than 55”long. That’ll conclude this article so if you want to learn more go play!Ha,ha,you thought the article was over. Did you know that hockey is actually the only sport to allow changes on the fly. This lets hockey be very fast. That’s really all this article has so go play. 46