ABOUT THE GAME

June 13, 1999


Home Page
Contact Info
Email The Ox
RHI Teams
Schedule
Ox Events
Results
Ticket Info
Ox Facts
About The Game
Roster
Babe Links
Press Releases

How Roller Hockey Compares To Ice Hockey
Skates The players wear in-line skates instead of ice skates.
Puck The puck used is a special in-line puck designed and patented for RHI. It is plastic, not rubber and has eight small dome shaped runners to simulate the gliding of an ice hockey puck.
Surface Roller hockey is played on a plastic SportCourt® floor instead of an ice surface.
Time of Year RHI plays from the beginning of June until mid August each season, followed by a single elimination play off format on a championship weekend, which is usually the third weekend in August.
Game Format Professional roller hockey games consist of four 12 minute quarters, with a 12 minute halftime. The quarter format shortens the game time significantly because it only has one intermission whereas ice hockey games have two longer intermissions. Most RHI games are played in a two-hour time frame, which is more conducive for televised games and more appealing to the family and younger audiences attending the game.
No Ties Exciting five player "sudden death" shoot-outs to eliminate ties. The winning team gets two points and the team losing the shoot-out gets one point.
Players Roller hockey teams have five players on the floor at one time, ice hockey teams have six players. The lineup for a roller hockey team includes one defenseman, three forwards and one goaltender. Four-on-four competition allows for faster skating and higher scoring games including more "end to end" action.
Hard Checking & Physical Play There is no difference between the hard checking and solid body contact of ice hockey vs. roller hockey. RHI games are very physical.
One Red Line and No Blue Lines RHI has eliminated the blue lines creating larger playing zones. The center red line serves primarily for offsides and illegal clearing (icing in ice hockey language). The larger playing zones (defensive and offensive) allow for a wide open and higher scoring style of play. Skilled players can exhibit their talents more frequently. The offense can carry the puck into the offensive zone even with an offensive player already in the zone and it is not offsides - he just can't pass it in. This speeds up the game.
High Scoring More exciting than ice hockey - more shots on goal averaging 90 per game resulting in higher scoring games averaging 18 goals per game.
Player Compensation All players on a team receive the same compensation. RHI players are not paid salaries but play for prize money, which is based on winning games ($300 per player per win / $200 per player per loss) in both regular season standings and playoff performances. RHI players are driven to perform as a team because of the team based incentives for winning. With the short season, this means that every RHI game is equally important to every member of the team.

All content ©1999 Minnesota Blue Ox. This page last updated 6/13/99 .
This site designed and built by Transgalaxy Productions, hosted by PowerUser Technologies
Email webmaster@minnblueox.com