Game
The version of lacrosse played in the NLL is indoor lacrosse otherwise known as box lacrosse. The NLL plays four quarters of fifteen minutes each, with two-minute breaks between the first and second quarters and between the third and fourth quarters, and a twelve-minute break between the second and third (called half-time). The clock does not run when play is stopped. (Canadian Lacrosse Association box lacrosse is played on a hard floor, usually in the summer, and has 4 periods instead of 3.)
The team that has scored the most goals at the end of regulation time is declared the winner. If the game is tied after four quarters have been played, the teams begin sudden death overtime; the team that scores first wins the game. Overtime periods are fifteen minutes long, with two-minute breaks between overtime periods. Prior to the 2005 NLL season, overtime periods were 5 minutes each.
Each team dresses twenty players, of whom two are goaltenders; the remaining eighteen are called runners, and may be either forwards or defensemen. There are also players, frequently defensemen, who specialize in the transition from defense to offense.
The team in possession of the ball has eight seconds to move the ball over the center line, and thirty seconds to take a shot on net. If either of these time periods expires, the whistle is blown, and the opposing team is given possession. In the NLL, the shot clock runs while a team that is killing a penalty has possession of the ball; this is not the case in all box lacrosse leagues (e.g. Major Series Lacrosse, Western Lacrosse Association).
Read more about this topic: National Lacrosse League
Famous quotes containing the word game:
“The most disgusting cad in the world is the man who, on grounds of decorum and morality, avoids the game of love. He is one who puts his own ease and security above the most laudable of philanthropies.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“It is usual for a Man who loves Country Sports to preserve the Game in his own Grounds, and divert himself upon those that belong to his Neighbour.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“My first big mistake was made when, in a moment of weakness, I consented to learn the game; for a man who can frankly say “I do not play bridge” is allowed to go over in the corner and run the pianola by himself, while the poor neophyte, no matter how much he may protest that he isn’t “at all a good player, in fact I’m perfectly rotten,” is never believed, but dragged into a game where it is discovered, too late, that he spoke the truth.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)