A coach can challenge only four narrow kinds of call.

The ruleset used on this page

This page applies IIHF Rules 37 and 38 for the 2026/27 season. The published rulebook is Version 1.0, dated June 2026, and the IIHF says the latest rulebook posted on its rules page is the version for its events and championships.

That does not make this a worldwide rule for every ice hockey game. Rule 37.3 says Coach's Challenge is used only at selected IIHF championships; Rules 18.4 and 20.6 likewise mark some penalty-review technology as competition-dependent. A national federation, professional league, junior league or tournament may appoint a different process. The NHL comparison below is therefore kept separate.

“It went to review” can describe different procedures

1. Goal review under Rule 37: at a video-equipped IIHF championship, the Video Review Consultant screens every goal and can expand the review of a close or undetected potential goal.
2. Coach's Challenge under Rule 38: a team asks for one of four listed questions to be reviewed. The challenge system is available only where that IIHF championship has adopted it.
3. On-ice penalty review: referees—not a coach—may or must review certain assessed double-minor or major penalties under Rules 18.4 and 20.6 at designated championships.

One mechanism does not enlarge another. A coach cannot turn an ordinary hook, trip or interference non-call into a Rule 38 review merely because the play later becomes important.

What an IIHF goal review can decide

IIHF Rule 37.3 lists ten core goal questions:

• Whether the puck crossed the goal line.
• Whether it entered before the goal frame was displaced, or the criteria for a goal with a displaced frame were met.
• Whether it entered before time expired.
• Whether an attacker used a distinct kicking motion.
• Whether an attacker deliberately directed, batted or threw it in other than with a stick.
• Whether it deflected directly into the net from an on-ice official.
• Whether it was played into the net with a high stick above crossbar height.
• Whether it entered properly through the goal mouth rather than through or under the net.
• Whether it entered as the culmination of a continuous play after a referee lost sight of it and blew the whistle.
• Whether a penalty-shot or shootout goal complied with the applicable attempt rules.

These are goal-validity questions. Off-side, a missed stoppage and goalkeeper interference use Rule 38 where Coach's Challenge is active. If that system is not active, Rule 37.3 allows referees, at their discretion, to review possible goalkeeper interference on a scoring play.

The category must fit before the replay matters

IIHF Rule 38.2 permits only these challenges:

1. Off-side leading to a goal: the defending team challenges a goal because an attacker allegedly entered the attacking zone illegally.
2. Missed attacking-zone stoppage leading to a goal: the defending team says a stoppage caused by the attacking team was missed before the goal. An unnoticed puck played out of the playing area is the stated exception for which either team may have caused the stoppage.
3. Goalkeeper interference: the defending team may challenge a goal, or the attacking team may challenge a no-goal call when officials ruled goalkeeper interference after the puck entered.
4. Delay of game—puck over glass: a team may challenge an assessed Rule 63.2(III) minor on the factual ground that the puck deflected or otherwise did not go directly out as ruled.

A close goal-line decision, kick, high stick above the crossbar or displaced net is already a Rule 37 matter. If Rule 37 resolves the play, a requested challenge is unnecessary rather than a second appeal of the same question.

The coach must act before play resumes

Rule 38.3 requires verbal notice to a referee before the centre-ice face-off following a goal. For a no-goal ruling based on goalkeeper interference, or an assessed puck-over-glass minor, notice must come before play resumes.

The coach must identify the claimed infraction and its approximate time with reasonable specificity. Delay tactics can cause the request to be denied and can themselves bring a bench minor. Only one Coach's Challenge per team is permitted at a stoppage.

Under IIHF Rule 38.5, a team may challenge an appropriate play at any time in the game. The Video Review Consultant supplies the replays and advice, but after consultation the appropriate on-ice referees or linespersons make the final IIHF decision.

Doubt preserves the call on the ice

Rule 38.1 uses a demanding test: the original call is overturned only when video supports a conclusive and irrefutable determination that it was clearly wrong. Showing that another call was plausible is not enough. If a skate, puck, stick or contact point cannot be located reliably in the available angles, the call is confirmed.

Rule 38.7 adds a technology boundary. If the play cannot be reviewed because of a technical failure such as a black screen, the final on-ice call stands. The challenge is recorded as unsuccessful, but the team is not assessed the failed-challenge bench minor for that technical failure.

The zone must remain unbroken before the goal

For an off-side challenge, the linespersons determine whether one or more attacking players preceded the puck into the attacking zone and the play should have been stopped under Rule 83. The goal is reviewable on this ground only if the puck did not leave the attacking zone between the disputed entry and the goal.

If the puck exits and the team legally re-enters before scoring, the earlier entry is not a Rule 38 basis for cancelling that goal. If the challenge succeeds, the goal is disallowed, the clock returns to the time the off-side should have stopped play, and the face-off is placed as it would have been on the original call.

This is not a search for an uncalled penalty

Rule 38.9 covers a missed event after the puck entered the attacking zone and before the goal—for example, a hand pass under Rule 79, a high-sticked puck under Rule 80 or a puck out of bounds under Rule 85. The event must be conclusively visible and, apart from the puck-out exception in Rule 38.2, caused by the attacking team.

A missed penalty that depended on an official's judgment or discretion cannot overturn the goal, even if an official watching replay would now prefer a penalty. The puck also must remain in the attacking zone from the missed event to the goal. A zone clearance ends that reviewable sequence.

Replay can reverse either a goal or a specific no-goal call

The defending team can challenge a goal under Rule 69. The attacking team can challenge when the puck entered but officials called no goal for goalkeeper interference. For that attacking challenge, Rule 38.10 asks whether there was no attacker-initiated contact, whether a defender pushed, shoved or fouled the attacker into the goalkeeper, or whether the attacker's crease position had no discernible effect on the goalkeeper's ability to defend the goal.

This remains a rule-based judgment about responsibility and impairment, not a rule that any crease contact cancels a goal. If a goal is overturned to no goal, the face-off goes to the nearest neutral-zone spot outside the attacking zone. If an interference no-goal call is overturned, the goal is allowed and the face-off is at centre ice.

A challenge can erase a call, not create one

The Rule 63.2(III) challenge is available only after officials assess a defending-zone delay-of-game minor for shooting or batting the puck out. It addresses factual video evidence: a deflection from a player or stick, contact with boards or glass, or evidence that the puck did not break the upward plane of the glass as ruled.

A team cannot challenge a non-call to demand that this penalty be assessed. If the challenge succeeds, Rule 38.11 rescinds the minor and the face-off remains in the defending zone. If it fails, the original minor remains and the team also receives the applicable two- or four-minute failed-challenge penalty.

The clock, face-off and penalties are corrected separately

For a successful off-side or missed-stoppage challenge, Rule 38.6 disallows the goal, restores the clock to the moment play should have stopped and locates the face-off as if the original infraction had been called correctly.

Penalties assessed between that missed stoppage and the later review do not automatically vanish. Identified minor or major penalties are still served and are recorded at the restored stoppage time. That is why “the goal came off the board” does not necessarily mean every consequence during the intervening play is erased.

IIHF uses escalating time penalties, not a lost timeout

If the final call is not overturned, Rule 38.7 assesses a two-minute bench minor for the team's first unsuccessful challenge. Once that team has already made one or more unsuccessful challenges, a later unsuccessful challenge brings a four-minute double bench minor.

The rule does not give a team one challenge and then remove all future challenge rights. It permits another eligible challenge, but the penalty risk escalates. The technical-failure exception described above is the narrow case in which an unsuccessful result carries no bench minor.

An undetected goal rewinds the game at the next stoppage

Rule 37.2 allows the video process to identify a potential goal that officials missed while play continued. The horn can stop play once video establishes the goal; otherwise the matter must be completed no later than the next stoppage and before play resumes. A goal cannot be awarded or disallowed by video after the ensuing face-off.

If Team A's earlier apparent goal is confirmed, the clock returns to that goal and a later Team B goal during the continuing play does not count. Only one goal can be awarded at the stoppage. If Team A's puck entered illegally—for example by a distinct kicking motion—neither Team A's apparent goal nor Team B's later goal is awarded, because play should have stopped at the first illegal entry into the net.

Serious-penalty replay is not a Coach's Challenge

At the IIHF championships that implement these systems, Rule 18.4 lets referees review an assessed double-minor for high-sticking and either confirm or nullify it. Rule 20.6 requires review of assessed major penalties, with fighting review limited to the dangerous-punch provision in Rule 46.13; the referee may confirm the major, reduce it to a lesser penalty for the same infraction, or nullify it.

These reviews begin from the officials' penalty call. They do not let a coach challenge an ordinary missed minor or ask replay to inspect every contact earlier in the shift.

The NHL changes who starts and decides late reviews

The NHL Official Rules 2025–2026 use broadly the same four challenge categories and the same two-minute/then-four-minute unsuccessful-challenge penalties. The important procedural differences should not be blended with the IIHF baseline:

• Late-game initiation: NHL Rules 38.3 and 38.6 shift initiation to the NHL Situation Room during the final minute of the third period and at any point in overtime, in regular-season and playoff games. IIHF 2026/27 Rule 38.5 instead says a team may initiate an appropriate challenge at any time.
• Final decision: the NHL Situation Room renders the final NHL challenge decision after consultation with on-ice officials. Under IIHF Rule 38.4, the appropriate on-ice officials render the final decision after consulting the Video Review Consultant.
• Availability: the NHL process applies to NHL games; the IIHF rulebook expressly limits Coach's Challenge to selected IIHF championships.

The NHL's official video-rulebook page was still linking the 2025–26 rulebook when this page was checked on 27 August 2026. No claim is made here that those NHL procedures govern IIHF, college, junior or national-federation games.

A goal follows an off-side entry 20 seconds earlier

Situation: Red enters the attacking zone, retains the zone for 20 seconds and scores. Green challenges the original entry. Video conclusively shows a Red skater preceded the puck.

IIHF 2026/27 ruling: disallow the goal, restore the clock to the off-side and use the face-off location required by the original off-side. The elapsed 20 seconds do not defeat the challenge; the decisive fact is that the puck never left the attacking zone before the goal.

The puck leaves the zone after a missed hand pass

Situation: Red makes an apparent attacking-zone hand pass, but the puck later exits the zone. Red legally re-enters and scores. Green challenges the earlier hand pass.

IIHF 2026/27 ruling: the earlier event cannot cancel this goal under Rule 38.9 because the puck left the attacking zone before the goal. Unless another eligible event occurred after the new entry, the call stands and Green's challenge is unsuccessful.

A defender pushes an attacker into the goalkeeper

Situation: the puck enters, but officials rule no goal for goalkeeper interference. Red challenges, and video conclusively shows a defender caused the contact and the attacker did not independently initiate it.

IIHF 2026/27 ruling: allow the goal under Rule 38.10 and restart with a centre-ice face-off. If an interference penalty against the attacker had been indicated, Rule 38.6 removes it; the review does not add some other uncalled penalty.

An assessed puck-over-glass penalty followed a deflection

Situation: officials assess Blue a delay-of-game minor from its defending zone. Before play resumes, Blue challenges and replay conclusively shows the puck touched an opponent's stick before leaving the rink.

IIHF 2026/27 ruling: rescind the minor and conduct the face-off in Blue's defending zone. If officials had made no call, Blue's opponent could not use Rule 38 to create the penalty.

How to analyse a disputed replay

1. Name the competition and edition. Confirm that its event regulations provide the technology and Coach's Challenge.
2. Identify the initiator. Is this a Rule 37 goal review, a Rule 38 team challenge or an officials' penalty review?
3. Fit the exact category. Do not treat importance as review authority.
4. Check the deadline. A team must notify the referee before the prescribed face-off or resumption.
5. Trace the relevant sequence. For off-side and missed stoppages, ask whether the puck later left the attacking zone.
6. Apply the evidence standard. If the error is not conclusive and irrefutable, preserve the call.
7. Apply each consequence. Decide goal/no goal or penalty first, then restore the clock, locate the face-off, retain any intervening penalties and assess any failed-challenge penalty.

Five claims the IIHF rules do not support

• “A coach can challenge any missed penalty.” Rule 38 lists only four narrow grounds.
• “Every IIHF game has Coach's Challenge.” The rulebook limits it to selected championships.
• “Any contact in the crease means no goal.” Responsibility and actual impairment matter under Rules 69 and 38.10.
• “A failed challenge costs a timeout.” The IIHF 2026/27 consequence is a two-minute bench minor, escalating to four minutes after an earlier failure.
• “Replay erases everything that happened afterward.” Clock correction, face-off placement and intervening penalties have separate rules.

Governing-body sources and effective versions

• International Ice Hockey Federation — Official Rule Book 2026/27, Version 1.0 (June 2026), Rules 18.4, 20.6 and 37–38
• International Ice Hockey Federation — current Rules, Regulations & Guidelines page
• National Hockey League — Official Rules 2025–2026, Rules 37–38
• National Hockey League — Video Rulebook and current rulebook download page

Checked on 27 August 2026 against the IIHF 2026/27 rulebook and the IIHF page identifying the latest published edition. NHL differences were checked against the latest NHL rulebook linked by NHL.com on that date, the 2025–26 edition. IIHF Event Codes and Technical Requirements determine which championships implement Coach's Challenge and the optional penalty-review systems; domestic and tournament regulations may differ.