Fan's Guide to PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26

If a regular-season game is still tied after the five-minute overtime period, the teams go to a shootout, run under the penalty shot rules (Rule 24).

• The ice is shovelled first. The home team chooses whether to shoot first or second, and teams alternate shots.
• Each team takes five shots unless the outcome is decided earlier. If still tied after five each, it becomes sudden death.
• The coach selects the shooters. All players are eligible unless serving a ten-minute misconduct or assessed a game misconduct or match penalty.
• Once the shootout begins, the goalkeeper cannot be replaced unless injured.
• The winning team is recorded as winning by one goal, based on the score at the end of overtime. The shootout goal is not credited to the scorer's personal statistics, and the losing goalkeeper is not charged with the extra goal.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 86.4.

In the playoffs, when a game is tied after three 20-minute periods, the teams take a 15-minute intermission and then resume playing 20-minute periods, changing ends for the start of each overtime period. The team that scores the first goal in overtime is declared the winner of the game.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 86.5.

The rulebook says a form of bodychecking is permitted. Players may angle an opponent with their body to separate her from the puck. Players moving in the same direction whose body contact causes the puck carrier to lose the puck are not penalized, and a player who holds her position on the ice may make contact with an approaching puck carrier without penalty.

Bodychecking is penalized as an "illegal hit" when a player:

• makes deliberate contact with an opponent using opposite-directional force,
• leaves her skating lane to make contact, or
• extends an arm, shoulder or hip after angling an opponent.

Other points from Rule 52:

• Bodychecking is allowed when there is a clear intention of playing or gaining possession of the puck.
• Players may "hold their ground": a stationary player is entitled to that area of the ice, and the puck carrier must avoid contact with her.
• If the puck carrier makes every effort to avoid contact and the opponent moves into her, or a player steps or glides into an opponent, the penalty is at least a minor (2 minutes) for an illegal hit.
• Referees may assess a minor or a major penalty depending on severity.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 52.

No. The rulebook states that "fighting" is not part of the PWHL's game.

• Players who willingly take part in a brawl or fight ("willing combatants") are penalized by the referees and may be ejected, and further supplementary discipline may be imposed.
• A fight is deemed to have occurred when at least one player punches or attempts to punch an opponent repeatedly, or when two players wrestle in a way that makes it difficult for the linespersons to separate them.
• A player who persists after being ordered by the referee to stop, or who resists a linesperson, incurs at least a major penalty for fighting plus an automatic game misconduct, at the referee's discretion.
• The aggressor (a player who keeps throwing punches at an opponent who is defenceless or an unwilling combatant) is assessed a major penalty for fighting and a game misconduct.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 46.

Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone.

• The position of a player's skates, not her stick, decides offside.
• A player is offside when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line involved in the play.
• She is onside if either skate is in contact with the blue line, or on her own side of it, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leading edge of the line.
• A puck carrier who crosses the line ahead of the puck is not offside, provided she had possession and control of the puck with her stick before both skates completely crossed the leading edge of the blue line.
• If a player legally carries, passes or plays the puck back into her own defending zone while an opposing player is in that zone, the offside is ignored.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 85.

Icing is called when a player on a team that is equal or superior in numbers (not short-handed) shoots, bats or deflects the puck from her own half of the ice (the centre red line divides the ice into halves) beyond the opposing goal line. Play is stopped.

• To nullify a potential icing, the team in possession must "gain the line": the puck, on the player's stick (not her skate), must touch the centre red line.
• The linesperson decides by the instant the first player reaches the end zone face-off dots, with the skate as the determining factor. The question is which player would first touch the puck, not who reaches the dots first. If the race is too close to call by then, icing is called.
• After an icing, the attacking team chooses which end zone face-off dot is used.
• If the goalkeeper feigns or attempts to play the puck, or skates toward it, the icing is not called.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 83.

• Minor penalty: a player other than the goalkeeper is ruled off the ice for two minutes, and no substitute is permitted.
• Major penalty: for the first major penalty in a game, the offender (other than the goalkeeper) is ruled off for five minutes, and no substitute is permitted. A player serving a major does not leave the penalty bench when the opposing team scores. She must wait for the whole major to expire.

The rulebook also lists bench minor, double minor, misconduct, game misconduct and match penalties, and penalty shots.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rules 16 and 20.

All players must wear full-face protection, either a full visor or a cage, properly fixed to the helmet. A player without it is not allowed to participate in a game. Players must also wear ear protection attached to their helmets.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 9.7 and the ear-protection requirement in the preceding equipment rule.

The PWHL has off-ice video review staff (including the Central Situation Room) watching every regular-season and playoff game, plus a Video Replay Judge in every arena. Every goal is reviewed. If an expanded review is needed, the horn sounds and the public address announcer says the play is under review.

Situations subject to review include:

• Puck crossing the goal line, or in the net before the goal frame was dislodged.
• Puck in the net before or after time expired at the end of a period.
• A "distinct kicking motion" (a goal cannot be scored that way).
• Puck deliberately directed into the net by an attacker with a body part other than her stick.
• Puck deflected into the net off an on-ice official.
• Puck struck into the net with a high stick above the crossbar.
• Puck entering the net improperly (through the mesh or under the frame).
• All potential goals on penalty shots and shootout attempts.

The off-ice staff can also review to verify the time on the clock.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 37.

No. Under Rule 38 (the PWHL Central Situation Room Review, formerly the Coach's Challenge), a team is not permitted to request a review. The Central Situation Room (CSR) official or the on-ice officials can start one, and only for goal/no goal and delay-of-game (puck over the glass) situations:

• Missed game stoppage in the offensive zone leading to a goal, for example a hand pass, high-sticking the puck or puck out of bounds.
• Possible goalkeeper interference, either on a goal that may need to be disallowed, or on a no-goal call where the puck entered the net.
• A delay-of-game minor for shooting or batting the puck over the glass, which can only be rescinded, not assessed.

The original call stands unless video conclusively and irrefutably shows it was clearly not correct. The PWHL does not review offside under any circumstances.

If a goal is disallowed for a missed stoppage, the clock is reset to when play should have stopped. If a goal is disallowed for goalkeeper interference, the face-off is at the nearest neutral zone face-off spot. If a no-goal call is overturned, the goal counts and play restarts with a centre-ice face-off.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 38.

Each team may take one 30-second time-out per game, in the regular season or the playoffs. All players on the ice, goalkeepers included, may go to their benches.

• It must be taken during a normal stoppage of play, and only one time-out (team or commercial) is allowed at any one stoppage.
• No time-out is granted after a face-off violation.
• The defending team cannot take one after an icing.
• No time-out is granted during the shootout.

Source: PWHL Official Rulebook 2025-26, Rule 89.