What Is a Penalty Kill in Hockey?

A penalty kill is what a team does when it is short-handed — down a skater because a player is serving a penalty — and must defend against the opponent's [power play](/power-play-in-hockey-explained/). The goal is to get through the penalty without allowing a goal. It is the mirror image of the power play: one team has the man advantage, the other is 'killing' the penalty.

It matches the penalty being served. A minor penalty is two minutes, a double minor is four, and a major is five. A team may have to kill overlapping penalties, leaving it two players down on a five-on-three, the most dangerous situation to defend. On a minor penalty, the kill ends early if the power-play team scores; on a major, it runs the full five minutes regardless.

Penalty-killers commonly use a compact 'box' or diamond formation to protect the middle and take away shooting lanes, pressure the puck to force turnovers, and clear it down the ice whenever possible to burn time. Blocking shots and winning defensive-zone [faceoffs](/what-is-a-faceoff-in-hockey/) are crucial. The aim is to deny the dangerous chances a power play is designed to create.

Yes, and it is a core tactic. A short-handed team is allowed to shoot the puck the length of the ice to clear its zone without being called for [icing](/icing-in-hockey-rules-explained/) — icing is waved off for the short-handed team. This lets penalty-killers relieve pressure and run time off the penalty by firing the puck down the ice repeatedly, which they cannot do at even strength.

Penalty-kill percentage is the share of opponent power plays a team prevents from scoring. League-wide it typically sits around 78–82%, so a team consistently above roughly 82% has a strong penalty kill, and one below the high 70s is struggling. It is one of the two special-teams numbers — alongside power-play percentage — that analysts use to judge a team's structure and goaltending.

Yes. A goal scored by the penalty-killing team is called a short-handed goal, and it is one of the most demoralizing plays for the team on the power play. Penalty-killers who aggressively pressure the puck sometimes force a turnover and break away the other direction. Short-handed goals are relatively rare but hugely momentum-shifting.

They are the same situation from opposite sides. The team with the extra skater is on the [power play](/power-play-in-hockey-explained/), trying to score; the short-handed team is on the penalty kill, trying to prevent it. One is about creating chances with a man advantage, the other about defending a man down. Together they make up 'special teams,' a major factor in who wins hockey games.