1st Period · Lesson 1 of 12 · Free
The rink, end to end
Three zones, five lines, and why the red and blue ones matter.
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1/5 The NFHS rule book draws the rink at 200 by 85 feet with rounded corners. Real rinks vary a little; the markings are what count.
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2/5 Five lines cross the ice: two thin red goal lines near the ends, two blue lines, and the red center line.
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3/5 The blue lines cut the ice into three zones. For the home team skating right, the left zone is where they defend and the right zone is where they attack.
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4/5 Nine faceoff spots: one at center, four in the neutral zone and two in each end zone inside big circles. The light blue half-moon in front of each net is the goal crease.
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5/5 Players change from the benches on one side. The penalty benches (the box) are usually across the ice from them.
If you learn one thing before the next game, learn the lines. Almost every whistle that confuses people in the stands, offside and icing above all, is about a line.
The center line splits the rink in half. That matters for icing: where the puck is shot from (which half) decides whether it can be icing at all.
The blue lines matter for offside. The zone a team attacks starts at the blue line on that side, and the line itself belongs to the zone the puck is leaving until the whole puck is over it.
Each team changes ends after every period, so the net a team defends in the first period is the one it attacks in the second.