crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

That is true. But even in a variably lit arena, it does not change enough to think about your exposure when you are running and gunning. (I can remember on PEI as a 12yr old at some rinks in the small towns where the lighting would require changes in ISO (you needed a flashlight to go into the corners....that was my excuse for not going in....) but I done think this is the case in most rinks in NA.

Auto ISO might work but I never trust it in a VERY high dynamic range shooting situation....Hockey is one of those situations where I would highly recommend not using it.

(Where the entire scene is dark and then fast movement to all bright....that is where auto iso rocks. Example shooting a pheasant in a thicket and then it jumps and flies...pre-setting the ap/ss for the "pheasant against the sky" and then float the iso to shoot the pheasnt in the thicket and you can get both without adjusting....but i digress)

Spot metering: if you are on the dark jersey, your ISO will shoot to the moon. If you miss the jersey and hit the ice, the player will be a silhoutte
Not much better with the other metering modes and the camera choice will try to average the bright white ice with the number of black jerseys and the exposures will be all over the place. Much more variable than any shifts in lighting.

I would recommend to the OP to try it out anyway. Convince yourself what works for you.
Film is cheap :-)

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Your points are very interesting. I don’t mean to challenge you. I am curious and constantly in search of better ways to shoot Hockey. Personally I have not had good luck using a constant iso in most rinks that I shoot. But since you raised the point maybe I will have to go back and experiment more with constant ISO. I agree that the OP should try both and see what works best in the rinks she is shooting in. I do not disagree that controlling the iso is preferred over auto iso when you can.

jlocke Loc: Austin, TX

Not to pick nits here, but although you are right, and the ice is clear, the first layer put down is usually painted a bright white, or a powder (I don't recall the chemical) is added into the water to color the ice white. If this was not done, you would see the ugly gray concrete under the ice. After a few more layers, the lines and logos are painted on, then more layers are built up on top.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

I would like to amend a previous statement I made about shooting raw for hockey I have been shooting Hockey Raw for many years now. Recently while trying to adjust the iso on the fly without looking I hit the wrong button. Instead of changing the iso I changed the memory card 2 slot set up on my D7100 from overflow to JPG. Shot a whole game with one card recording raw and the other JPG. I have to be honest I was really happy with the jpg results. I was also very happy with the less post processing time, big time saver. I am still not ready to go back to jpg only but in the 20 games since I have not had a single image yet where I needed to go to the raw file. Anyone else have good luck shooting hockey jpg not raw?

wayne-03 Loc: Minnesota

Hockey is very difficult to photograph; fast action and the lighting is the worst. I use a 70/200 – f/2.8 lens, I do a custom WB off what ever light the rink has. Switch your camera over to back button focus that will help a lot. I usually start at ISO 1600 and go up from there. Try to kept your shutter speed as close to 1/1000 as possible and never below 1/500. Always shoot in RAW so you can make adjustment in post if you have to.

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rdubreuil Loc: Dummer, NH USA

Lots of good advice to this point, unfortunately with the lens you have you'll never get the results you're looking for the 70-300mm is an f/4.5 - 5.6, you'll always have to PP your images as best you can and deal with the noise. To achieve what you're looking for will require a much faster lens, a f/2.8 at minimum for your zoom. Or a couple even faster primes, even then you'll be upping your ISO to maintain shutter speed.