NHL Overtime and Shootout Rules: Regular Season vs. Playoffs

A tie game in the NHL never ends in a tie, but how it gets settled depends entirely on the calendar. The regular season uses 3-on-3 overtime and a shootout. The playoffs throw both of those out and just keep playing 5-on-5 until someone scores. Here is exactly how each one works.

How Regular-Season Overtime Works

If a game is tied after 60 minutes of regulation during the regular season, it moves to a five-minute, sudden-death overtime period played 3-on-3, with goalies not counted among the three skaters. The first goal, scored by either team, ends the game immediately.

The 3-on-3 format opens up acres of ice compared to a normal 5-on-5 shift, which is exactly the point. It was introduced for the 2015-16 season to replace the old 4-on-4 overtime, which produced far more ties going to a shootout because the extra space simply was not there.

The Shootout

If the 3-on-3 period ends with no goal, the game goes to a shootout:

• Each team picks three different skaters to take alternating penalty shots
• The team that scores more goals after three rounds wins
• If still tied, it becomes sudden death, one shooter per team per round, and teams may start reusing shooters

A shootout win or loss counts as a game decided in overtime for standings purposes, even though no extra ice time beyond the 3-on-3 period was played.

Standings Points: Win, Loss, OT Loss

Every NHL game produces a winner and a loser, but the standings reward how a team lost:

That single standings point for an overtime or shootout loss is why coaches often play cautiously once a 3-on-3 period starts; a loss there still beats a loss in regulation. It is also why a team fighting for a playoff spot in March will sometimes settle for a tied game in regulation and take its chances in overtime rather than press for a risky, potentially costly, go-ahead goal late in the third period.

Playoff Overtime Is Completely Different

Once the Stanley Cup playoffs begin, the regular-season rules disappear entirely. There is no shootout in the postseason, under any circumstances. Instead:

• Overtime periods are full 20-minute, 5-on-5, sudden-death periods, the same strength as regulation play
• If the first overtime ends scoreless, the teams rest briefly and play another full 20-minute period
• This repeats for as many periods as it takes until a goal is scored

Power plays and penalty kills still apply exactly as they would in any other period, so a playoff overtime can turn on a single bad penalty just as easily as regulation does.

Why No Shootouts in the Playoffs?

The league's reasoning is straightforward: a shootout is closer to a skills competition than a hockey game, and deciding a playoff series that way has never sat well with the sport. Keeping it at full 5-on-5 means a playoff overtime goal has to be earned through actual team play, even if that means multiple extra periods and a very long night for both rosters.

What Counts as a "Loss Point" and Why Teams Care

That single standings point matters more than it might seem over an 82-game season. Teams separated by just a few points in a tight playoff race will openly play for overtime once a third period ends level, since a 1-point overtime loss is strictly better than a 0-point regulation loss. That is also why you will sometimes see a team pull its goalie for an extra attacker late in a tie game rather than play it safe into overtime; the gamble is only worth it if the alternative, a clean overtime period, feels like a coin flip anyway.

A Short History of How We Got Here

The NHL has tinkered with overtime for decades trying to cut down on ties. Before the 2005-06 season, regular-season games that stayed level after a single five-minute, 4-on-4 overtime simply ended in a tie, no shootout at all. The shootout was introduced for 2005-06 to guarantee a winner every night. The ice then got even more open in 2015-16, when the format shifted from 4-on-4 to the current 3-on-3, specifically to create more genuine overtime goals and send fewer games to a shootout in the first place. The playoffs, by contrast, have never used a shootout. Full 5-on-5 sudden-death overtime has been the postseason standard for generations, long before the current regular-season rules existed.

Format at a Glance

Why It Matters

The gap between these two systems is part of why playoff hockey has such a different feel from an October Tuesday night. A random 3-on-3 breakaway can decide a meaningless regular-season game in minutes, while a tied playoff game can run into a second or third extra period before anyone scores. For how the bracket itself is built once the postseason starts, read our NHL playoff format explainer, and brush up on two more rules that shape every shift in our guide to icing and offside.

Follow every extra-period classic in our NHL coverage.

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