Hockey pics with Nikon Coolpix 5700

I recently purchased a Nikon Coolpix 5700 Digital Camera. The main

purpose of this camera will be to photograph indoor ice hockey. What

would be the best settings to use in order to capture the best action

shots? Thanks in advance!

Would not be my choice because of the electronic viewfinder vs an optical finder. Not sure if the auto focus is fast enough. The equivalent f/2.8-4 makes the lens a bit slow for ISO 800 in the telephoto range for lighting conditions where I've shot hockey.

Based on D1X/D1H experience in hockey rinks: ISO 800 (the fastest you have), preset white balance on all white ice near center ice.

The two exposure metering methods I use are: Aperture priority with lens wide open (or close to it) or manual based on center ice reading shooting everything at the same aperture and shutter speed. Either way check out the histogram and blown highlights on a center ice and use exposure compensation to put the highlights up in the top 1/4 of the histogram.

An 80-200mm AFS f/2.8 lens on a D1X doesn't autofocus fast enough when somebody skates through between you and the subject and temporarily pulls the focus back toward the camera. I suspect the 5700 will suffer even worse. Not sure how easy it is to switch between manual and auto focus on the 5700 to prevent this, but it won't be as easy as pressing the manual focus lock/override on my 80-200 AFS lens.