What Is a Power Play in Hockey? Penalties, 5-on-3 and the PK

A power play happens when one team has more skaters on the ice than the other because an opposing player is serving a penalty. The team with the extra skater is on the power play, and the team down a man is on the penalty kill, often shortened to the PK.

The standard version is 5-on-4: five skaters plus a goalie against four skaters plus a goalie, usually for two minutes. From there it gets more interesting. Some power plays end the moment a goal is scored and some do not, two penalties at once can create a 5-on-3, and the referee can let play continue for a while before calling a penalty at all. This guide explains each case using the NHL's 2026-27 Official Rules.

The penalties that create a power play

Not every penalty puts a team on the power play. The ones that do are time penalties served in the penalty box with no substitute allowed:

• Minor penalty: two minutes (Rule 16.1). Tripping, hooking, slashing, holding and interference are typical examples.
• Double minor: four minutes, served as two back-to-back minors (Rule 18.1). The usual cause is a high stick to the head or face that causes an injury, such as drawing blood.
• Major penalty: five minutes (Rule 20.1). Fighting is the most familiar one.
• Bench minor: two minutes for a team offense such as too many men on the ice. The coach picks any skater to serve it.

A 10-minute misconduct does not create a power play on its own. The player sits, but his team can replace him right away, so the strength on the ice stays the same. Goalies do not go to the box either. When a goalie takes a minor or major, a teammate who was on the ice serves the time, and the power play happens just the same.

5-on-4, 5-on-3 and the three-skater minimum

One penalty means 5-on-4. Two penalties to the same team at overlapping times means 5-on-3, a two-man advantage that gives the attacking team a lot of room to pass the puck around.

It never goes further than that. A team must always have at least three skaters on the ice. Under Rule 26, if a third player is penalized while two teammates are already serving time, he goes to the box immediately, but his penalty clock does not start until one of the first two penalties ends. His team sends out a substitute to stay at three skaters.

A hypothetical example with the game clock counting up from 0:00 in the period:

• At 5:00, Team A takes a minor. Power play, 5-on-4, until 7:00.
• At 6:00, Team A takes another minor. Now it is 5-on-3 until 7:00, then 5-on-4 until 8:00.
• At 6:30, Team A takes a third minor. That player goes straight to the box, but his two minutes start only when the first penalty expires at 7:00, so he serves until 9:00. Team A stays at three skaters until the second penalty ends at 8:00, then plays 5-on-4 until 9:00.

One more detail: while a team is at three skaters because of stacked penalties, players coming out of the box may have to wait for a stoppage before returning, so the clock and the bodies on the ice do not always match up perfectly.

When a power play ends early

This is where most of the confusion lives. The short version: a goal by the team on the power play frees a player serving a minor, but not a player serving a major. The NHL has released a player serving a minor on a power play goal since 1956-57, and today's Rule 16.2 says that when a team shorthanded by a minor gives up a goal, the first of those minors automatically ends. If the team is serving more than one minor, only the one with the least time left ends.

The main cases:

• Minor penalty: ends as soon as the power play scores. The penalized player returns.
• Double minor: a goal ends only the two-minute portion currently being served. If the goal comes in the first two minutes, the second minor starts fresh at that moment. If it comes in the last two minutes, the penalty is over.
• Major penalty: the player serves all five minutes no matter how many goals are scored (Rule 20.2). A team can score two or three times on one major.
• Shorthanded goal: if the penalty-killing team scores, nothing changes. The penalty keeps running.
• Penalty shot: a goal on a penalty shot never releases a player from the box.

A worked example for the double minor, straight from the logic of the rulebook's reference tables. A player takes a four-minute double minor at 3:00 of a period. The power play scores at 4:30. The first minor ends at 4:30, and the second minor starts right then, so the player is in the box until 6:30. If the power play had instead scored at 5:30, the first minor would already have expired at 5:00, the goal would wipe out the second one, and the player would come out at 5:30.

Coincidental penalties and 4-on-4

When both teams are penalized at the same stoppage, the penalties often cancel out for strength purposes. Under Rule 19.1, if one player from each team gets a minor at the same stoppage and no other penalties are on the clock, the teams play 4-on-4 for two minutes. Nobody is on the power play, and a goal does not release either player.

Coincidental majors work differently. If two players fight and each gets five minutes, both teams put a substitute on the ice immediately and play continues at full strength. That is why a fight rarely leads to a power play unless one player also picks up an extra minor, for instigating or roughing for example.

When the penalties are uneven, such as a minor and a double minor at the same stoppage, equal amounts cancel and the difference is served as a normal power play.

The delayed penalty

If a player commits a foul while his team does not have the puck, the referee does not blow the whistle right away. Under Rule 15.1, he raises his arm to signal a delayed penalty and lets play continue. The whistle comes only when the team that committed the foul gains control of the puck.

That window is a free shot at a goal for the other team. Because the play will stop as soon as the opponent touches the puck, the team about to go on the power play usually pulls its goalie for an extra skater, playing 6-on-5 with little risk.

If they score during the delay, the goal counts. When the pending penalty is a minor, it is not assessed at all (Rule 15.2). When it is a double minor, one minor is washed out and the player serves the other two minutes. Majors and match penalties are assessed regardless.

There is even a strange overtime rule tied to this. In regular season overtime, if a team pulls its goalie on a delayed penalty and then accidentally shoots the puck into its own empty net, the game is over and the team that was about to be penalized wins.

The penalty kill and power plays in overtime

The shorthanded team gets one big break: it can ice the puck. Under the NHL icing rule, a team below the numerical strength of its opponent can shoot the puck the length of the rink without a whistle, so penalty killers clear the zone whenever they can. Our guide to icing in hockey covers the exact timing when a penalty is about to expire.

The team on the power play also gets a perk at the start: it chooses which of the two end zone faceoff dots is used for the opening faceoff. That lets it set up on the side that suits its best faceoff player or its shooters.

Regular season overtime changes the numbers. Overtime is played 3-on-3, so a penalty produces a 4-on-3 power play instead of 5-on-4, and a two-man advantage means five skaters against three. When the advantage ends, the teams go back to 4-on-3 or 3-on-3 at the next stoppage. If both teams take minors at the same stoppage in overtime, they simply keep playing 3-on-3. More on overtime and the shootout is in how many periods are in hockey.

Reading power play and penalty kill stats

Two percentages show up on every team stats page, and the math is simple.

Power play percentage (PP%) is power play goals divided by power play opportunities. Penalty kill percentage (PK%) is the share of times shorthanded that the team did not allow a power play goal.

Take a hypothetical team to show the arithmetic. It scores 18 power play goals on 80 opportunities, so its PP% = 18 / 80 = 0.225, or 22.5 percent. It is shorthanded 75 times and allows 15 power play goals, so its PK% = (75 - 15) / 75 = 60 / 75 = 0.80, or 80 percent.

Check what each figure counts before comparing teams across sites. Some stats pages also show shorthanded goals for and against next to these percentages, and a power play that keeps giving up shorthanded goals is losing some of its advantage even when its PP% looks fine.

Power play quick reference

The essentials on one screen:

• Minor: 2 minutes, ends early on a power play goal.
• Double minor: 4 minutes, a goal ends only the current 2-minute portion.
• Major: 5 minutes, served in full regardless of goals.
• Misconduct: 10 minutes for the player, but no power play.
• One minor each at the same stoppage: 4-on-4, no power play.
• Fewest skaters a team can have: three, so 5-on-3 is the biggest advantage.
• Delayed penalty: play goes on until the offending team touches the puck; a goal wipes out a pending minor.
• Penalty killers can ice the puck; teams on the power play cannot.
• Overtime: a penalty means 4-on-3.

If you are learning another sport's version of special situations, our guide to American football for beginners explains how penalty flags and yardage work on the gridiron.