A tripping penalty in ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 is called by the referee

Official (ice hockey)

In ice hockey, an official is a person who has some responsibility in enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game. There are two categories of officials, on-ice officials, who are the referees and linesmen that enforce the rules during game play, and off-ice officials, who have an...

 when a player trips an opposing player with their stick

Hockey stick

A hockey stick is a piece of equipment used in field hockey, ice hockey or roller hockey to move the ball or puck.- Field hockey :Field hockey sticks have an end which varies in shape, often depending on the players position...

, or uses their skate against the other players skate, causing them to lose balance and fall ("slew footing").

A tripping call usually results in a two-minute minor penalty on the player that caused the infraction. If the player was tripped on a breakaway

Breakaway (ice hockey)

A breakaway is a situation in ice hockey in which a player with the puck has no defending players, except for the goaltender, between himself and the opposing goal, leaving him free to skate in and shoot at will . A breakaway is considered a lapse on the part of the defending team...

 (with no opponents to pass other than the goaltender

Goaltender

In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...

), a tripping call may instead result in a penalty shot

Penalty shot (ice hockey)

In ice hockey, a penalty shot is a type of penalty awarded when a team loses a clear scoring opportunity on a breakaway because of a foul committed by an opposing player. A player from the non-offending team is given an attempt to score a goal without opposition from any defending players except...

for the tripped player.