The 1999 World Hockey World Championships held in Norway contrasted with previous finals by scoring more goals and attacking from start to finish, overwhelming and no defense.
The current rules of the IIHF are slightly different from the rules used in the NHL. The first difference is the size of the field: NHL’s field is smaller, at 61 x 26m (200×85 feet), compared to the international size of 61×30 m (200×98.5 feet). Another rule between the NHL and IIHF concerns game suspension. In the NHL, the line referee stops the game if a defensive player (outside the goalkeeper) touches the ball before an attacking player does so; This is contrary to the IIHF rule which requires to stop the game only when the ball has crossed the goal line. The NHL and IIHF also differ in penalty laws. According to the NHL, in addition to extra penalties like in IIHF matches, the main penalties will be applied for dangerous violations, such as hitting people and intentionally extending the time up to 5 minutes.
At the start of the 2005-06 season, the NHL introduced several new rules. Some of them have been adopted by the IIHF, such as penalty shootout and offside rules. Other rules are not yet used by the IIHF, such as the goalkeeper’s equipment requirement and the goalkeeper’s trapezoid rule. However, IIHF disagrees with NHL’s intolerance policy on how to play against opponents in competition and requires referees to impose additional penalties for punches, ball holding and blocking. In 2006, IIHF granted elimination of tie matches and established a 3-point mechanism: winning in regulation time will be awarded 3 points, winning in extra time gets 2 points and losing in extra time is equal to 1 point. This mechanism was first applied at the 2007 World Hockey Championships.