Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Contact to the head (head shots) already prohibited in NCAA hockey

There's been a lot of talk about head shots in hockey lately and I haven't seen anyone bring up the fact that the NCAA already has a rule against shots to the head. Maybe it's because most people writing about it aren't very familiar with college hockey.

From section 8 of the NCAA rulebook (page 62):

Contact to the Head
SECTION 8. A player shall not make contact with an opposing player’s
head or neck area in any manner.
PENALTY—Minor or major or disqualification at the discretion of the
referee. Contact to the head shall be assessed in front of the
infraction (i.e., contact to the head – elbow).
Note: The rules committee instructs officials to use a zero tolerance policy in
this area.


Does the rule actually eliminate head shots? No. At the OSU vs. MSU games this weekend, seven out of the 20 penalties involved contact to the head. But the penalty serves to discourage it.

The verbiage and enforcement of this rule in the NCAA could serve as a model for the NHL.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

NCAA RULE ON HEAD SHOTS HAS NOT BEEN CALLED A NUMBER OF TIMES BY WCHA OFFICIALS,
Probably the most serious was in the N Dakota-MN game this season(2010).
6'4" Blood came across the MN goal crease, raised his elbow and knocked off Kangas' helmet and mouth piece. As they hit the ice Kangas leaned over and landed a couple of chin shots. The officials called a penalty on Kangas but said none of the FOUR OFFICIALS saw the elbow. Great WCHA Officating!!!






































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