Chart: NCAA hockey rule on hits to head

The NCAA ice hockey rules committee used the current rules cycle "Points of Emphasis" section to focus on contact to the head. It's an area of the game that must be improved, the section says. Here are some excerpts from the rule book:

… The committee is concerned about violent contact that has occurred in the game and caused injury. To make this rule clearer, any time a player targets the head or neck area of an opponent, it must be a major penalty and a game misconduct penalty at a minimum.

When the initial force of the contact is through the body of the opponent and then slides up to the head or neck area, the committee believes this type of indirect contact to the head action may still be penalized, at the referee's discretion, as another minor penalty.

Source: NCAA