Match Penalty?

From the official NHL rule book:

Rule 29 Match Penalties

A "MATCH" penalty involves the suspension of a player for the balance of the game and the offender shall be ordered to the dressing room immediately. A substitute player is permitted to replace the penalized player after five (5) minutes playing time has elapsed when the penalty is imposed under Rule 43 -- Attempt to or Deliberate Injury of Opponents.

(NOTE 1) The Match penalty shall be served by a player to be designated by the Manager or Coach of the offending Team through the playing Captain, such player to take his place in the penalty box immediately.

For all match penalties, regardless of when imposed, or prescribed additional penalties, a total of ten minutes shall be charged in the records against the offending player.

(NOTE 2) When coincident match penalties have been imposed to a player on both Teams, Rule 27(c) covering coincident major penalties will be applicable with respect to player substitution.

(NOTE 3) The Referee is required to report all match penalties and the surrounding circumstances to the Commissioner of the League immediately following the game in which they occur.

Where everything stated above from the rule book is correct, sometimes when someone is trying to learn hockey, the language stated in the rules isn't always that easy to understand. Basically, when someone tries to, or does, injure another player on purpose (at least in the eyes of the ref, and if he sees it), they will be given a match penalty. Most likely, the player will also receive a game misconduct penalty, and the league will review the act in question and if it is deemed severe enough, the player will likely face some type of suspension.