Patent ID: 7765608

Claim:
A face guard for a hockey helmet, comprising a plurality of welded wires made of steel and interconnected to define a curved grid having a concave side for facing a face of a hockey player and having a plurality of apertures, each aperture being sized and configured for preventing a hockey stick or puck from impacting the hockey player's face, said plurality of wires comprising first, second and third vertical wires intersecting fourth, fifth and sixth horizontal wires, each of said first, second, and third vertical wires and fourth, fifth and sixth horizontal wires having a portion to be at least partially located within a field of view of the hockey player wherein, in use, said first, second and third vertical wires and at least one of said fourth, fifth and sixth horizontal wires are located adjacent the eyes of the hockey player for protecting the eyes against impacts from a hockey stick or puck, and each of said first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth wires having an elliptical cross-section having a major axis and a minor axis with a ratio of said minor axis to said major axis being between 0.2 and 0.9such that each of said first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth wires has a rigidity that is greater than that of a circular wire having the same cross-sectional area as said elliptical wire.