Neutral Zone Forecheck: 1-1-3

The 1-1-3 is a wall. You barely pressure the puck; instead you clog the neutral zone with three players across the ice and make the other team either dump it in or turn it over trying to skate through you. It is the structure you use to protect a lead or slow down a fast team.

Reading the diagram: red circles are our skaters, black X circles are the other team, and the small black dot marks the puck. They are coming at us from the right side; we defend the left end.

F1 is the lone forechecker high in the picture. The red arrow shows him steering the puck carrier — he is not trying to take the puck, only to push the play to one side and slow the breakout down.

F2 is the second layer. His arrow shows him supporting F1 from behind, staying between the puck and the middle of the ice so the first pass has nowhere good to go.

F3, D1 and D2 are the "3" — a flat line across the sheet at our red line. Their spacing is the whole system: shoulder to shoulder in coverage terms, with no lane wide enough to carry a puck through. The arrows show them retreating together, keeping the line intact as the play comes at them.

A good 1-1-3 turns almost every rush into a dump-in, which gives your defence a clean retrieval and a breakout of your own.