On Sat, 16 May 2009, Henry wrote:

> John Edwards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>> On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 1:08 AM, Henry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> In the recent Ice Hockey World Championship (IHWC) in Switzerland, in
>>> one game there was a very unusual situation that made me wonder about
>>> the rules. One team already had two men in the penalty box when they got
>>> yet another minor. The offending player immediately went into the box
>>> but of course his time couldn't start counting until one of his
>>> teammates left the box. That happened during play; the first penalty
>>> expired and the player skated out.

>>> At that point, shouldn't that team have been guilty of too many players on
>>> the ice?

>> Since that would presumably be a timekeeper's error, I think any
>> referee would have a hard time punishing a team for it.

> Right; that's what I thought should have happened -- but it didn't. The
> door opened, A1 emerged and skated straight over to his bench.
> Timekeeper's error, then, but still the referee should have noticed that
> they had four men on the ice when they were supposed to have two in the
> box. Fortunately for said timekeeper, all the action was concentrated
> down around the penalised team's goal. What if they had cleared to
> centre ice right while A1 was going across? Or, even worse, if they had
> got a short-handed breakaway? Thank luck the course of the game was not
> altered by this.

The opposite problem occurred in an RIT-Air Force game in Rochester
this season:

http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0809/boxes/mafarit1.f27

At 5:56 Air Force's Tim Kirby took a double minor and RIT's Anton
Kharin took a minor penalty, but the refs neglected to put a second
Air Force player in the box.  During the course of Kharin's minor, RIT
took another penalty and then scored a 4x4 goal.  So at 7:56 Kirby's
first penalty ended, but the penalty box official (correctly) did not
open the door because he was the only Air Force player in the box and
still had two more minutes to serve.  Of course Air Force was then
entitled to have a fifth skater since the second RIT penalty was the
only one still on the board, so both Kirby and everyone on the AFA
bench started making a ruckus, so the penalty box official relented
and let him out, and Air Force promptly scored a power play goal.
Kirby was on the ice at the time, even though he was actually supposed
to be in the penalty box.
 				John Whelan
 				Cornell '91