NHL Overtime Rules Explained

NHL overtime rules work in two completely different ways depending on the time of year. A regular-season game that is tied after 60 minutes gets five minutes of 3-on-3 and then a shootout, and somebody is going home in under ten minutes of extra hockey. A playoff game that is tied after 60 minutes can run for another hour.

Understanding both formats — and why the league runs them so differently — explains a lot about how teams play the third period in February versus May. The rules below are the ones in force as of the 2026-27 season.

NHL overtime rules in the regular season

If the score is tied at the end of regulation:

1. There is a short intermission, and the teams switch ends to the long-change configuration.
2. A five-minute sudden-death period is played 3-on-3 — three skaters and a goalie per side.
3. The first goal ends the game.
4. If nobody scores, the game goes to a shootout.

The 3-on-3 format is the whole point. Removing two skaters per side opens enormous amounts of ice, kills the structured defensive coverage that makes 5-on-5 hockey low-scoring, and turns overtime into a series of odd-man rushes. Most regular-season overtimes now end before the shootout, which is exactly what the league wanted when it moved from 4-on-4 to 3-on-3.

A few mechanics that catch people out:

• Line changes matter enormously. With only three skaters out, a bad change is a breakaway against. Teams often keep a unit out for 90 seconds rather than risk changing on the fly.
• Penalties give the other team a skater, not fewer. Overtime goes to 4-on-3, not 3-on-2. When the penalty expires, play returns to 3-on-3 at the next whistle.
• Goalie pulls basically don't happen. There's no trailing team in sudden death, so there's nothing to chase.

The shootout

If the five minutes end scoreless, three shooters from each team alternate attempts from center ice. Most goals after three rounds wins. If it's still level, it goes to sudden-death rounds — one shooter each, and the first round where one team scores and the other doesn't ends it. After the first three rounds, a team may use any skater, including one who has already gone.

The shootout decides the two points, but the league treats it as a lesser result. Shootout wins are excluded from ROW (regulation plus overtime wins), which is the first tiebreaker in the standings. Two teams tied on points are separated by who won more games in actual hockey.

The loser point, and why it exists

Any game that reaches overtime is worth three points in total instead of two: two to the winner, one to the team that lost in overtime or the shootout. A regulation loss is worth zero.

Result	Winner	Loser
Regulation win	2	0
Overtime win	2	1
Shootout win	2	1

The stated reason is that a team tied after 60 minutes has earned something, and that guaranteeing a point removes the incentive to play for a tie the way teams did before the shootout era. The criticism is the obvious one: a tied game with two minutes left is worth more to both teams than a risky push for a winner, so the third period of a tied game is often the most conservative hockey of the night. The full effect on the standings, including how it distorts points totals across the league, is covered in the NHL points system guide.

Playoff overtime is a different game

There is no shootout in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and no 3-on-3. Playoff overtime is:

• Full 20-minute periods, played 5-on-5, exactly like regulation.
• Sudden death — the first goal at any point ends the game and the night.
• Standard intermissions between overtime periods, with a full ice resurfacing each time.
• Repeated as many times as necessary. There is no cap.

A playoff game that goes to a second overtime has been played for the length of a regulation game and a half. A third overtime is two full games' worth of hockey. These games turn into tests of goaltending, bench depth and conditioning as much as skill — coaches shorten the bench, the ice deteriorates, and teams stop trading chances and start playing the safest possible hockey because one mistake ends the series night.

Regular season vs playoff overtime

	Regular season	Playoffs
Length	One 5-minute period	Unlimited 20-minute periods
Strength	3-on-3	5-on-5
Sudden death	Yes	Yes
Shootout if still tied	Yes	Never
Intermissions	Short break before OT	Full intermission between each OT
Standings points at stake	3 total (2 and 1)	None — it decides a game in a series
Typical extra time played	Under 5 minutes	5 to 40+ minutes

The reason for the split is straightforward. The regular season has 84 games in roughly six months and a travel schedule to protect, so games need to end. A playoff series has to produce a real winner, and the league is not willing to decide who advances with a skills competition.

How overtime shapes the standings and the bracket

Because overtime games hand out an extra point, a team that collects a lot of overtime losses can sit far higher in the standings than its win total suggests. Over a long season those single points decide wild-card races, and the wild-card races decide who plays whom in April. The NHL playoff format guide walks through how the final standings turn into the bracket — and it's worth remembering that once a team gets there, every one of those tidy five-minute overtimes is replaced by the unlimited version.

The bottom line

Regular season: five minutes of 3-on-3 sudden death, then a shootout, with a point for the loser either way. Playoffs: full 20-minute 5-on-5 sudden-death periods, no shootout, for as long as it takes. Same sport, two completely different rulebooks for the same tied score.