What Is Cross-Checking in Hockey? NHL Rule Explained

Cross-checking in hockey is when a player holds their stick horizontally with both hands off the ice and shoves or jabs the shaft into an opponent’s body. It’s illegal at every level of the sport because the stick multiplies the force of the hit and raises the risk of injury compared to a standard body check. Officials call it constantly around the net front, after whistles, and after goals, where players jostle for position and tempers run hottest.

What Counts as Cross-Checking?

The move gets its name from how the stick is held: one hand near the top of the shaft, the other roughly halfway down, so the stick sits across the body like a bar. The player then extends their arms and pushes or jabs that bar into an opponent, usually into the back, chest, or shoulders. The NHL’s official rulebook defines it as “the action of using the shaft of the stick between the two hands to forcefully check an opponent.”

The key details that separate a legal battle for position from an illegal cross-check are contact point and force. If the initial point of contact is a player’s shoulder, hip, or torso, and the stick just happens to be between them, officials usually let it go as incidental contact. Once a player visibly extends the stick and drives it into an opponent with force, especially in the back or from behind, it’s a penalty. This is the same category of infraction covered in what is high-sticking in hockey, where stick position above the shoulders is the deciding factor instead.

The Official NHL Rule (Rule 59)

NHL Rule 59 governs cross-checking and gives referees discretion to match the penalty to the severity of the contact rather than applying one fixed punishment. The IIHF’s equivalent, Rule 127, is stricter and guarantees at least a minor penalty any time the infraction is called, with no lesser option. USA Hockey and the PWHL both use nearly identical language to the NHL’s rule, which means the definition of a cross-check doesn’t change much as players move between levels; only the enforcement discretion does.

Penalties for Cross-Checking

Penalty	Length	When it’s called
Minor	2 minutes	Standard cross-check with moderate force, the most common call
Major + game misconduct	5 minutes, offender ejected for the rest of the game	Forceful or reckless contact, often to a vulnerable player or from behind
Match penalty	5 minutes served by a teammate, offender ejected and reviewed by the league	Referee judges the player intended to injure the opponent

A minor penalty is the routine call and puts the team on the penalty kill for two minutes, the same mechanic covered in SportsMonkie’s power play in hockey explained guide. A major penalty carries an automatic game misconduct, meaning the offending player is done for the night even though a teammate only serves five minutes in the box. A match penalty goes further: the player is ejected immediately, a substitute serves the time, and the league’s hockey operations department reviews the hit for possible supplemental discipline, including a suspension.

Cross-Checking vs. Slashing, High-Sticking, and Boarding

Cross-checking often gets confused with other stick fouls because they all involve illegal stick contact, but each targets a different action:

• Slashing is a chopping or swinging motion, usually aimed at an opponent’s hands, wrists, or legs, rather than a straight-on shove.
• High-sticking happens when a player’s stick makes contact above the opponent’s shoulders, which is a separate rule regardless of how many hands are on the stick. See what is high-sticking in hockey for the full breakdown.
• Boarding is checking an opponent violently into the boards, with or without a stick involved, and is judged by the danger of the impact rather than the stick position.
• Charging involves taking multiple strides or extra momentum before delivering a body check, unrelated to stick use at all.

Cross-checking is the only one of these four defined specifically by the two-handed stick position, which is why it has its own dedicated rule number in every major rulebook. It also shows up most often in situations that have nothing to do with the forecheck pressure covered in what is forechecking in hockey; most cross-checks happen in stationary net-front battles, not while chasing the puck into the offensive zone.

Why the NHL Cracked Down on Cross-Checking

Starting in the 2021-22 season, the NHL directed officials to call cross-checks more consistently, especially around the net front, after goals, and to the head, neck, or back. The change followed several high-profile injuries and mounting criticism that stick fouls in scrums were going unpunished simply because they happened away from the puck. Referees were told to treat those extracurricular cross-checks the same as ones during active play, which noticeably raised minor-penalty totals in the seasons that followed. Coaches and players still debate where the line sits between a normal net-front battle and a punishable shove, but the emphasis on protecting players from behind hasn’t reversed.

How to Avoid a Cross-Checking Penalty

Players are taught to keep their stick blade on the ice and their hands apart rather than stacked together, since the two-hands-together grip is what triggers the call in the first place. Coaches also teach body positioning, using shoulders and hips to establish position in front of the net instead of the stick, and to release pressure the moment a whistle blows rather than continuing to jostle. Discipline matters most in the highest-traffic areas of the rink: the crease and immediately after a goal, where retaliatory cross-checks are the single most common way this penalty gets called.

For the full rundown of stick fouls, body-position rules, and other terms used throughout the sport, see the hockey terminology glossary, and for a wider look at how the NHL structures its game, visit the ice hockey (NHL) hub.