Neutral Zone Forecheck: 1-2-2

The 1-2-2 is the safest neutral zone forecheck in hockey. You give up a little pressure to make sure nothing gets through the middle of the ice, and you win the puck when the other team runs out of room along the boards.

Reading the diagram: red circles are our five skaters, black circles marked X are the other team, and the small black dot shows who has the puck. The opponent is breaking out toward us from the right side of the sheet — we are defending the left end.

F1 is the single forechecker. The red arrow shows him angling at the puck carrier from the inside out, taking away the middle and forcing the puck up the wall. He never skates straight at the puck; he arrives on an angle so the carrier only has one option.

F2 and F3 are the "2" behind him. They sit on either side of the middle lane just above our red line, close enough to jump on a puck F1 forces up the boards, but never so deep that a pass splits them. Their job is to kill the seam pass and stall the play at the far blue line.

D1 and D2 are the last "2". They hold near our red line, stay wide of each other and skate backwards with the play. The arrows show them turning and matching speed with the wingers instead of standing still and getting beaten wide.

The puck should die along the wall, get chipped back into the far zone, or come to F2 or F3 in the middle of the sheet with speed the other way.