NHL Playoffs Overtime Rules 2022: What You Need To Know
Sometimes when watching a hockey game, you find yourself hoping for overtime because it is so entertaining! One of the most thrilling plays in the NHL is an overtime goal.
When a regular season game was tied after 60 minutes of regulation from World War II to the 1982–1983 season, the result was merely a tie. The NHL then brought back the overtime session at the start of the 1983–84 campaign.
How does NHL overtime operate? If a game is tied after 60 minutes of regulation play during the regular season, an additional 5-minute overtime period will be played. The game ends immediately, and his team is declared the winner if a player scores during this period. Shootouts are used in games that are not resolved in overtime.
What you need to know about NHL overtime regulations in 2022:
The NHL changed its overtime format ahead of the 2015-16 season, adopting 3-on-3 OT. The AHL and ECHL had used this format before the NHL decided to implement it in place of 4-on-4.
KIRILL 👏 THE 👏 THRILL 👏
Kirill Kaprizov caps off a wild game with the @energizer overtime winner! pic.twitter.com/lFJjGE6jGg
— NHL (@NHL) October 21, 2022
NHL regular-season and postseason overtime regulations
- A five-minute 3-on-3 hockey overtime period is played between teams.
- The sudden-death overtime period is played, and the team that scores first wins.
- If no one scores after five minutes, the match proceeds to a shootout.
- For the three rounds of the shootout, each team chooses three shooters. Each squad gets one shot per round.
- After three rounds, the side with the most goals scored wins the match.
- The game continues round after round until one team scores, and the other does not if both teams score the same number of goals in the first three rounds.
Defense leads to offense. 😤
Nick Robertson's incredible defensive play leads to him scoring the @energizer overtime winner for the @MapleLeafs! pic.twitter.com/7MHBl7tweA
— NHL (@NHL) October 21, 2022
NHL playoff overtime regulations
- After regulation, if the score is still knotted, the teams will play a second full 20-minute 5-on-5 overtime period.
- Once more, it is a sudden-death format. Thus, the winner is the first side to score.
- The game goes into additional overtime periods if nobody scores in the first one, and so on until one of the team’s scores wins.
Erik Karlsson and Kirill Kaprizov each scored overtime winners to earn the @SanJoseSharks and @mnwild their first victories of the season during a 12-game Thursday.#NHLStats: https://t.co/Pncf5drNp5 pic.twitter.com/myXILaJfbE
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 21, 2022
If neither team scores in overtime, what happens?
After overtime, if the score is still tied, a shootout is conducted.
A player from each team alternately attacks the goalie alone in an effort to score. The winner will be decided after three rounds.
After three rounds, if the score is still tied, the shootout continues on to sudden death rounds, when each team gets one final chance to win before one team scores and the other fails.
First career overtime winner from Neal Pionk is the difference maker 🗣
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) October 20, 2022
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