Hockey plays you need to know

        Forward Criss Cross

The Criss cross is a useful attacking strategy especially when it is a 3 on 2 situation. There are many variations on this play but the essential element is the the criss crossing of two attacking players in order to confuse and misbalance the defense.

The play illustrated below begins with the D passing the puck to the right wing. This wing stays back in the right lane to provide defensive coverage if the criss cross play fails or a pass intercepted. The left wing and center criss cross in the neutral zone and the right wing makes a crisp pass to the left wing as they pass behind the center. They then enter the offensive zone at a higher speed than the defense who have moved laterally to cover the attackers. The right wing then follows them into the zone and moves into the high slot.

Keys to an effective criss cross are quick skating and crisp passes.

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