While the mechanism you describe is a classic way in which your posterior cruciate ligament could have been injured, I would first recommend that you make sure to have a complete examination by a physician to be sure that this is the exact diagnosis.

The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is the strongest ligament in the knee. It's main purpose is to prevent the shin bone (tibia) from sliding backwards on the thigh bone (femur). Unlike the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) which does not heal when injured, the PCL has an excellent chance of healing when it is partially to near completely torn. This is because it has an extra lining of tissue around it which gives it a better blood supply.

It is very important to make sure that you do not have a complete tear of you PCL or any other major injuries to the ligaments around your knee. Due to the fact that the PCL is the largest ligament around the knee, it is often found that there are other ligaments injured with the PCL. When these other ligaments are found to be injured in combination with a PCL injury, it is often recommended that you have either a surgical repair or reconstruction of these ligaments to increase the chance that your knee will be functional after it heals. Due to the fact that these other injured ligaments often contract and scar down, which makes it difficult to perform a repair, it is recommended that this type of surgery be performed within 2 - 3 weeks after injury. Due to the complexity of the surgical reconstruction for a PCL, it often takes 9 - 12 months to totally rehabilitate from this surgery.

In your case, with a partial tear of your PCL, I would recommend an intensive program of physical therapy once the swelling and pain in your knee diminish. First, you should strive to achieve full motion in your injured knee. The next step would then be to work aggressively on strengthening your quadriceps muscles. The basic exercises that we follow for this are an exercise bike, leg presses, squats, and straight leg raises. I would avoid knee extension exercises with weights, as this exercise concentrates an extreme amount of weight around the knee and could cause a significant amount of irritation of the joint lining. Each of these exercises needs to be modified somewhat due to the fact that you have an injury to your PCL. The height of the seat on the exercise bike should be placed such that your lower leg is slightly flexed while sitting on the bike. When doing the leg press and squats, you should strive for only partial knee flexion (to about 70 ) because full knee flexion puts extra stress on the healing PCL. It should be noted that the main exercise that we are working for here is to strengthen the quadriceps muscle. This is because the quadriceps muscle pulls through the knee cap on the front part of the shin bone which protects your PCL. In general, hamstring exercises should be avoided during the early healing process, as it puts extra stress on the PCL.

Once you have rehabilitated your quadriceps muscles back into shape, there is an excellent chance that you could return to full activities in ice hockey. It is important to have full motion and strength of your knee prior to returning back to sports. I would anticipate that you would be able to return back to full activities in 4 - 6 weeks.