Rule 4.4 – Major Penalties

A major penalty is a five-minute time penalty. Any player assessed a Major penalty will also be assessed a Game Misconduct penalty.

Any player, goaltender or team official who is assessed a Major penalty will also be assessed a Game Misconduct penalty, will be ordered to the dressing room for the remainder of the game and will be reported to the appropriate Member or league for further action. The Coach of the penalized team, through the Captain, will designate any player on the ice at the time of the infraction to serve the penalty.
If a player is assessed both a Minor penalty and a Major penalty at the same stoppage of play, the Major penalty will be served first.

INTERPRETATIONS

Interpretation 1

Rule 4.4 (a)

QUESTION:

A player from Team A is cross-checked, causing injury that is not observed by the Referee. Immediately following, a player on Team B is sent on a breakaway and is tripped from behind and the Referee signals a Penalty Shot. As this is the first stoppage of play, the Linesperson reports the cross-check with injury to the Referee.

RULING:

Assess the Major penalty plus Game Misconduct penalty for Cross-Checking to the player from Team B and a minor penalty for Tripping to Team A. This would nullify the Penalty Shot because the play should have been stopped prior to the foul occurring.

Note 1: When a minor and a major penalty are assessed at the same time to two different players on the same team, the minor penalty is recorded as the first one assessed.