Slashing, hooking and tripping are different penalties with different tests.

The ruleset and season used here

This page applies the IIHF Official Rule Book 2026/27, the IIHF season edition in effect when this page was checked on 27 August 2026, to international ice hockey governed by the IIHF. The controlling provisions are Rule 55 (hooking), Rule 57 (tripping) and Rule 61 (slashing), together with Rules 15, 16, 20, 24 and 25 for procedure and consequences.

The IIHF says its events and championships use the same set of rules and that the latest version published on its rules hub is controlling. This is therefore an IIHF explanation, not a universal statement about the NHL, NCAA, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada or a domestic league. Those organizations appoint their own rulebooks, and a competition's event code may add procedures such as whether the video system needed for major-penalty review is in use.

Name the illegal action before choosing the penalty

• Slashing, Rule 61: Was there an illegal stick swing or a forceful chop rather than a genuine puck play?
• Hooking, Rule 55: Was the stick used in a way that enabled the player to restrain or impede the opponent?
• Tripping, Rule 57: Was the stick or any part of the player's body placed so that the opponent tripped or fell, and does an express accidental-play exception apply?

The categories can be close, but they are not interchangeable. Contact against or near an opponent's hands is classified as hooking when it restrains; a forceful chop on or near the hands that is not an attempt to play the puck is slashing. The referee judges the action actually committed.

A swing can be slashing even when it misses

IIHF Rule 61.1 defines slashing as swinging the stick at an opponent, whether or not contact is made. It also directs a penalty for a forceful or powerful chop to an opponent's body, stick, or on or near the hands when, in the referee's judgment, the action was not an attempt to play the puck.

The rule contains a real boundary: non-aggressive stick contact to the pants or the front of the shin pads should not be penalized as slashing. That is narrower than saying every tap is legal. The degree of force, the target, the swing and whether the player was genuinely trying to play the puck remain important. A forceful chop on an opponent's stick can therefore be slashing even though stick-to-stick contact alone is not hooking.

Restraint matters; a fall does not

Rule 55.1 defines hooking as using the stick in a manner that enables a player to restrain an opponent. Rule 55.2 requires a minor when the hook impedes the opponent's progress and also when a player uses the part of the shaft above the upper hand to hold or hook an opponent.

A tug that removes a stride, turns the shoulders or prevents a shot can satisfy the rule even if the opponent stays upright. Conversely, checking that produces only stick-to-stick contact is not hooking. The distinction is between playing the opponent's stick and using one's own stick as a restraint against the opponent.

The illegal placement must cause the trip or fall

Rule 57.1 prohibits placing the stick or any part of the body so that an opponent trips or falls. The provision covers more than a stick between the skates: a leg, foot or body part deliberately placed into the skating path can meet the test. But the opponent falling does not prove the offence; the referee must identify the opponent's illegal placement as the cause.

IIHF also excludes accidental trips that occur simultaneously with a completed play, and accidental trips occurring simultaneously with or after a stoppage. These are express exceptions, not permission to make a reckless challenge. A legal body check, a lost edge or incidental contact should not be converted into tripping merely because a player ends up on the ice.

Winning the puck is not a universal defence

The common claim “the defender got the puck first” is incomplete under IIHF 2026/27. Rule 24.8 expressly addresses a player who contacts the puck first and then trips the opponent: no penalty shot is awarded on that basis, but a minor penalty for tripping is assessed.

That must be read with Rule 57.1's exception for an accidental trip simultaneous with a completed play. The replay question is therefore not simply which object was touched first. It is whether the referee judges a punishable trip after the puck contact or an accidental trip within the completed-play exception. Puck contact can change the penalty-shot outcome without automatically erasing the underlying minor.

How to analyse a replay

1. Identify the action. Swing or chop, restraint with the stick, or placement that causes a trip?
2. Check the rule-specific boundary. Was it only stick-to-stick contact, non-aggressive contact to a protected area named by Rule 61, or an accidental completed-play trip?
3. Find the effect. Hooking requires restraint or impediment; tripping requires the opponent to trip or fall; a slash swing need not make contact.
4. Assess severity separately. Decide whether a minor is sufficient or the action recklessly endangered the opponent.
5. Check the scoring opportunity. Apply all four Rule 24.8 tests before replacing a minor with a penalty shot, and Rule 25 if the goalkeeper was off the ice.
6. Apply live-play procedure. Determine whether the whistle is immediate or delayed, whether a goal changes a minor, and where the face-off belongs.

Minor, major and removal are separate consequences

For the ordinary form of any of these three offences, the referee assesses a minor penalty. Under Rule 16.1, the player is ruled off for two minutes and no substitute is permitted, so the team normally plays short-handed. If the short-handed team concedes, Rule 16.2 normally ends the minor with the least time remaining, subject to the rule's coincidental-penalty conditions.

The higher routes are not identical:

• Hooking, Rule 55.3: a hook that recklessly endangers the fouled player and is not sufficiently sanctioned by a minor may be a major plus an automatic game misconduct.
• Slashing, Rule 61.3: the same major-plus-automatic-game-misconduct route applies when the slash recklessly endangers the opponent and a minor is insufficient.
• Tripping, Rules 57.3–57.4: the referee may assess a major for reckless endangerment when a minor is insufficient, or a major plus game misconduct when even a major alone is insufficient. Severity of the infraction and contact, violence and general reprehensibility guide that judgment.

A major runs for five minutes and does not end when the opponent scores. A game misconduct removes the player for the balance of the game; where it accompanies the major, a substitute may replace that player only after the five-minute major has elapsed. The cited foul rules use reckless endangerment—not injury alone—as the escalation test, and IIHF authorities may impose supplementary discipline after the game.

The non-offending team may keep attacking

Under Rule 15.1, a foul by the team in control of the puck produces an immediate whistle. If the offending team does not control the puck, the referee signals a delayed penalty and stops play when that team gains control.

If the non-offending team scores before the whistle on a delayed ordinary minor, Rule 15.2 normally washes out that minor; a major is still imposed. Once a penalty is placed on the clock, Rule 15.5 normally puts the face-off at one of the two spots in the offending team's end zone, chosen by the team receiving the power play. The rule lists exceptions after a goal, at the end or start of a period, and when attacking players encroach beyond the outer edge of the end-zone face-off circle.

A major call can be checked in equipped IIHF events

Rule 20.6 requires referees to review plays on which they assess a major penalty. After reviewing their own call, they may confirm the major, reduce it to a lesser penalty for the same infraction, or nullify it. The rule is expressly limited to certain IIHF championships because the necessary review technology is not universal.

This is a review of the on-ice major assessment, not a general viewer's challenge to every missed or called minor. Separate IIHF disciplinary authorities may still consider supplementary discipline under Rule 28.

A breakaway foul must satisfy all four tests

Hooking, tripping and slashing each point to Rule 24.8 for penalty-shot situations. A penalty shot is awarded only when:

1. the offence occurs in the neutral or attacking zone—over the puck carrier's own blue line;
2. the offence is from behind, except for a goalkeeper's foul from the front on a breakaway;
3. the player in possession and control, or who clearly would have obtained it, is denied a reasonable chance to score; and
4. no opposing player is between that attacker and the goalkeeper.

Getting a shot away does not automatically defeat the claim if the foul denied a more reasonable opportunity. Conversely, if the fouled player recovers, or a teammate gains a reasonable scoring opportunity, Rule 24.8 says no penalty shot should be awarded; the appropriate penalty is still signalled and assessed if no goal results.

When the offence would otherwise be an ordinary minor, Rule 24.6 says the penalty shot replaces that minor regardless of whether the shot scores. A major or misconduct consequence is still imposed. If the defending goalkeeper has been removed and the Rule 25.1 open-goal conditions are met, the remedy is an awarded goal instead.

A chop at the hands after the pass

Situation: Red passes the puck, and Blue then delivers a forceful downward chop on or near Red's top hand. Red is not injured.

IIHF 2026/27 ruling: slashing under Rule 61. The decisive facts are the forceful chop and the absence of a puck-playing purpose, not whether an injury resulted. Assess a minor unless the action meets the reckless-endangerment threshold for a major plus game misconduct.

A small tug prevents the shot

Situation: Blue puts the stick against Red's hands and briefly pulls, stopping Red from releasing a shot. Red stays on both skates.

IIHF 2026/27 ruling: hooking under Rules 55.1–55.2. The stick restrained and impeded Red; falling is not an element of hooking. If the contact had been only stick-to-stick with no restraint, Rule 55.1 says it would not be hooking.

The poke touches puck, then takes the skates

Situation: Blue reaches from behind, contacts the puck, then leaves the stick across Red's skates and causes Red to fall on a breakaway.

IIHF 2026/27 ruling: if the referee judges a trip rather than an accidental completed-play trip, assess a minor under Rule 57. Rule 24.8 says puck-first contact prevents a penalty shot in this fact pattern; it does not erase the minor tripping penalty.

The fouled attacker still gets a real chance

Situation: Red is hooked from behind beyond Red's own blue line with no defender between Red and the goalkeeper. Red loses the puck, but a teammate immediately collects it and gets a reasonable chance to score.

IIHF 2026/27 ruling: no penalty shot because the team still obtained a reasonable scoring opportunity. If no goal is scored, assess the hooking penalty. If the teammate had not obtained that real chance and the other Rule 24.8 conditions were met, award the penalty shot.

Claims the IIHF text does not support

• “No contact means no slash.” Rule 61 includes swinging the stick at an opponent even when the swing misses.
• “The player stayed upright, so there was no foul.” That may defeat tripping, but not a hook that restrained movement or a slash.
• “Stick-to-stick is always legal.” It is not hooking by itself, but a forceful chop on the opponent's stick that is not a puck play can be slashing.
• “Puck first means no tripping penalty.” Rule 24.8 expressly permits a minor trip while ruling out the penalty shot.
• “Any breakaway foul is a penalty shot.” All four Rule 24.8 criteria must be satisfied.
• “A game misconduct keeps the team short-handed for the rest of the game.” The player is removed; where a five-minute major accompanies it, the team can replace the player after those five minutes.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• International Ice Hockey Federation — Official Rule Book 2026/27, Rules 15, 16, 20, 24, 25, 55, 57 and 61
• International Ice Hockey Federation — current Rules, Regulations & Guidelines hub

Checked on 27 August 2026 against the IIHF 2026/27 season rulebook and the IIHF page identifying the latest published rulebook as controlling for IIHF events. This page does not merge NHL, NCAA, USA Hockey or other domestic standards into the IIHF baseline. Event codes and national-association rules may supplement or replace it for their own competitions.