Overtime Rules in the NHL: How OT Works (2026)

In the regular season, if a game is tied after 60 minutes, teams play a five-minute sudden-death overtime at three skaters per side (plus goalies). The first goal wins. If neither team scores in those five minutes, the game goes to a shootout to decide the winner. The winning team gets two standings points and the loser gets one for reaching overtime.

The NHL switched regular-season overtime to three-on-three in 2015 to create more open ice and more goals, so fewer games would need a shootout. With only three skaters per side, there is far more space, leading to end-to-end rushes and frequent scoring. It has been a popular change, resolving many more games in the OT period itself rather than a shootout.

Playoff overtime is played five-on-five, like regulation, in full 20-minute sudden-death periods with normal intermissions between them. There is no shootout — teams keep playing additional periods until someone scores, no matter how long it takes. Some playoff games have gone to multiple overtimes, becoming among the longest and most dramatic in the sport.

No. Shootouts are used only in the regular season. In the playoffs, a tied game after regulation is settled by continuous five-on-five sudden-death overtime periods until a goal is scored. This is why playoff overtime can last far longer than regulation itself, and why it is considered the most intense format in hockey. See our [shootout](/what-is-a-shootout-in-hockey/) guide for the regular-season tiebreaker.

A team that loses in overtime or a shootout still earns one standings point, while the winner gets two. A regulation win is worth two points and a regulation loss zero. This 'loser point' means games that reach overtime award three total points (2 to the winner, 1 to the loser), which shapes the standings and playoff races across the season.

Teams generally keep their goalie in during three-on-three overtime because the ice is already so open that pulling him would be extremely risky. Goalie pulling is far more common late in regulation when trailing. In the wide-open three-on-three format, defensive structure and line changes matter more than adding a skater, since a turnover often leads straight to a breakaway.

The formats are very different. NHL regular-season OT is short, three-on-three, and can end in a shootout, while [NFL overtime](/overtime-rules-in-the-nfl/) is a timed period where both teams are now guaranteed a possession. Both playoff formats reject ties, but hockey does it with continuous sudden death and football with a possession-based system. Each reflects how its sport scores and flows.