Sky Sports.com

The stage is set

Now that you can get your weekly fix of the Elite League on Sky Sports we thought it was important to lay out all the ins and outs for any new initiates.

First off the games are split into three 20-minute periods with two 15-minute intervals in between. Whenever the whistle blows or the puck leaves the rink though, the clock stops.

Teams are made up of 20 players, but only six of these players can ever be on the ice at one time and the standard set up is one goaltender, two defencemen and three forwards.

Substitutions can be made at any time and are on a roll on, roll off basis - adding to the fast pace and flow of the game. But there will be a two-minute team penalty imposed if a team is found to have too many players on the ice.

Changes

The five outfield skaters are arranged into lines and coaches will make line changes to try to match up certain players against each other to exploit their weaknesses. Each line plays in shifts, which are usually around two minutes long.

Goaltenders usually remain unchanged but are sometimes sacrificed for an extra outfield player when a team is chasing a goal with the clock ticking down.

The ice is divided into three equal playing zones - defending, neutral and attacking. There are three red lines on the ice to mark the halfway line and goal lines, and two blue lines to distinguish the neutral zone from the attacking zone.

Players are not allowed to enter their attacking zone ahead of the puck or the puck-carrier, if they do they will be considered offside.

Icing

If a player hits the puck from his own half over the opposition's goal line - not into the net - and an opposing player touches it first, this is called icing. A face-off in the offender's defensive zone will be used to restart play, but a team that is shorthanded - ie has one or more players in the penalty box when their opposition are at full strength - cannot be called for icing.

The centre spot is used to start play at the beginning of each period or after a goal, while the two face-off spots in the attacking and defending zones - of which there are four in total - and the four in the neutral zone are used to restart the game on all other occasions.

Offsides are restarted at the closest face-off spot in the neutral zone, while in other scenarios, like the puck going over the barriers, a face-off takes place at the nearest spot.

Players can stop the puck with their hands, body or skate but players can only move the puck forwards with a skate or stick and goals can only be scored by sticks or off a skate as long as there is no kicking motion made.