Icing (ice hockey)

Icing is an infraction in the sport of ice hockey. It occurs when a player shoots the puck across both the centre red line and the opposing team's goal line, and the puck remains untouched. However, it is not icing if the puck is shot from behind the halfway line into the goal; if the puck crosses the goal line completely, the goal is counted.

A major exception is when a team is shorthanded. A team trying to kill a penalty may legally "ice the puck". A team on a power play, however, must still follow the icing rules.

When icing occurs, a linesman stops play. Play is resumed with a faceoff in the defending zone of the team that committed the infraction.

There are three variations of icing: no-touch or automatic icing, touch icing, and hybrid icing.

In touch icing, a player on the opposing team other than the goaltender must touch the puck to cause the stoppage of play. If the puck is first touched by the goaltender or a player on the team that iced the puck, icing is waved off (cancelled) and play continues. The icing rule can lead to high-speed races for the puck. While an icing call is pending, the linesman raises an arm to indicate that a potential icing call may be made. If the icing is waved off, the official lowers his arm and gives the washout signal (extending both arms sideways from the body at shoulder height, similar to the "safe" sign in baseball but typically delivered from a less-crouched or fully upright position).

Most amateur leagues worldwide use no-touch or automatic icing, where play is stopped for icing immediately once the puck crosses the goal line.

International IIHF rules, the National Hockey League, American Hockey League, NCAA college hockey, European professional leagues, and several minor North American leagues (ECHL, Central Hockey League and SPHL) use hybrid icing. Play is stopped immediately if the player on the opposing team reaches the faceoff dot first, instead of skating all the way across the goal line to touch the puck. This type of icing is intended to reduce the number of collisions along the boards during touch icing, but still allowing the team that iced the puck to get to it first to wave off the icing. In instances where the puck is shot around the end boards, travels down the ice and comes out the other end, the linesman has to determine who would have touched the puck first. If it's the defending player, he calls an automatic icing but if it's the attacking player he lets the play continue. The NHL adopted this variation as its rule beginning with the 2013–14 season, after several decades of using touch icing. The IIHF then adopted it in 2014 after a few decades of using no-touch icing.

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