A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for an infringement of the rules. Most penalties are enforced by detaining the offending player within a penalty box for a set number of minutes, during which the player can not participate in play.Penalties are called and enforced by the referee, or in some cases the linesmen.oth the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) recognize the common penalty degrees of minor and major penalties, as well as the more severe misconduct, game misconduct, and match penalties.