NHL Overtime Scores: What Is the Score When Games Go to OT?
Across 4,101 tied NHL regular-season games, I trace the score at 60 minutes, how overtime gets settled and which official final scores the extra time produces.
Overtime is where many hockey scoreline bets are won or lost on a technicality. Across 17,921 NHL regular-season games, 4,101 (22.9%) were level after 60 minutes. That is a large enough slice of the schedule that anyone pricing exact scores or totals has to understand what happens next.
The short answer is that 2-2 is the most common score going into overtime, the 3-on-3 format settles most of those games before a shootout, and the winner usually arrives early. The official final that results is most often 3-2 or 2-3. For the match-by-match application, my free ice hockey tips page is where I put this structure to work.
Period 1Two-all is the score that most often forces overtime
This chart shows the score at the end of regulation for every tied game. 2-2 leads at 33.0%, with 3-3 close behind at 29.4% and 1-1 at 18.0%. The tails are thin: only 2.2% of tied games were 0-0, while 17.4% were 4-4 or higher.
The distribution is tighter than people expect. The two middle scores together account for well over half of all ties, so a draw-after-regulation bet is in practice a bet on a 2-2 or 3-3 game.
View the data: the score when nhl games go to overtime
| 4,101 regular-season games tied after 60 minutes | |
|---|---|
| 0-0 | 2.2% |
| 1-1 | 18.0% |
| 2-2 | 33.0% |
| 3-3 | 29.4% |
| 4-4 | 13.1% |
| 5-5+ | 4.3% |
What I take from this is that a goalless 60 minutes is genuinely rare, even in games priced for a low total. When I expect a tight, goaltender-led game, I think in terms of 1-1 rather than 0-0, because the data puts the first of those far ahead of the second.
Period 2Shootout rates barely move with the tie score
Here I split the 3-on-3 era by the tie score and ask how each game was settled. Overall, 66.3% of tied games were decided in overtime and 33.7% went to a shootout, across 3,035 games. The bars hardly shift as the score rises: 1-1 games reached a shootout 35.9% of the time, 3-3 games 33.3% and 4-4 or higher games 32.1%.
The outlier is 0-0, where only 27.1% went to a shootout. That figure rests on just 59 games, so I treat it as noise rather than a signal.
View the data: settled in overtime or a shootout?
| Settled in overtime | Went to a shootout | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-0 (59) | 72.9% | 27.1% |
| 1-1 (521) | 64.1% | 35.9% |
| 2-2 (967) | 65.9% | 34.1% |
| 3-3 (921) | 66.7% | 33.3% |
| 4-4+ (567) | 67.9% | 32.1% |
There is a faint lean towards lower-scoring ties reaching a shootout, which fits my view that games dominated by goaltending stay that way into overtime. But the gap is small, and I would not pay a meaningful premium for it.
Period 3Nearly half of overtime winners arrive inside two minutes
This chart breaks down 2,013 overtime-winning goals by the minute they were scored in the five-minute period. 22.4% came in the first minute and 46.4% inside two minutes. Only 16.0% arrived in the final minute.
Three-on-three hockey is open, and teams that win the opening faceoff can attack immediately against tired legs. The early surge reflects that: space is largest before coaches start managing risk.
View the data: when the 3-on-3 overtime winner comes
| 2,013 overtime-winning goals, 2015-16 on | |
|---|---|
| 0-1 min | 22.4% |
| 1-2 min | 24.0% |
| 2-3 min | 20.8% |
| 3-4 min | 16.8% |
| 4-5 min | 16.0% |
For in-play bettors, the implication is clear. As the clock runs down without a goal, the remaining overtime offers fewer chances, so the shootout becomes steadily more likely. A shootout price that barely moves after the first two minutes looks stale to me.
Period 4Three-two and two-three dominate extra-time final scores
This table lists the official finals of games that went past 60 minutes, with the home score first. 3-2 tops the list with 682 games, 16.6% of overtime and shootout games and 3.8% of all games, a fair price of 26.32. 2-3 follows at 3.7% of all games (fair odds 27.03), and 42.5% of those finals came from a shootout.
The pattern then repeats one goal higher: 3-4 at 29.41 and 4-3 at 30.30. The low-scoring pair sits further back, with 2-1 at 2.2% of all games (45.45) and 1-2 at 1.9% (52.63).
| Final | Games | Of OT/SO games | Of all games | Fair odds | By shootout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-2 | 682 | 16.6% | 3.8% | 26.32 | 38.3% |
| 2-3 | 670 | 16.3% | 3.7% | 27.03 | 42.5% |
| 3-4 | 612 | 14.9% | 3.4% | 29.41 | 40.0% |
| 4-3 | 595 | 14.5% | 3.3% | 30.30 | 35.8% |
| 2-1 | 396 | 9.7% | 2.2% | 45.45 | 43.4% |
| 1-2 | 341 | 8.3% | 1.9% | 52.63 | 43.7% |
| 4-5 | 273 | 6.7% | 1.5% | 66.67 | 37.0% |
| 5-4 | 263 | 6.4% | 1.5% | 66.67 | 39.9% |
| 6-5 | 76 | 1.9% | 0.4% | 250.00 | 35.5% |
| 5-6 | 69 | 1.7% | 0.4% | 250.00 | 44.9% |
Official final credits the overtime scorer or shootout winner with one goal.
One caveat matters more than any number here. Settlement rules differ, and many markets treat a shootout as a one-goal win credited to the final score, while others settle only on the 60-minute result. The goal data also excludes 2014-15. Always check which rule applies before comparing a quoted price with these fair odds.
Full-time verdict
2-2 accounts for 33.0% of tied games and 3-3 for 29.4%, so build regulation-draw thinking around those two scores, not the extremes.
The shootout rate sits at 33.7% overall and changes little by tie score, so a game's tie score alone rarely justifies a big shootout premium.
A 3-2 official final has fair odds of 26.32 only where the overtime or shootout winner is credited with a goal; confirm the rule before betting the price.
Questions bettors ask
What is the most common score when NHL games go to overtime?
2-2 is the most common, covering 33.0% of games tied after 60 minutes. 3-3 is next at 29.4%, then 1-1 at 18.0%.
How often do NHL overtime games go to a shootout?
In the 3-on-3 era, 33.7% of tied games went to a shootout and 66.3% were settled in overtime. That covers 3,035 games.
What is the most common NHL final score after overtime?
3-2 to the home side is the most common official final, at 16.6% of overtime and shootout games and 3.8% of all games. 2-3 is close behind at 3.7% of all games.
I'm Min-jun Park, and I cover ice hockey score predictions at correct-score.vip โ focusing on special teams, goaltending and the metrics that actually drive results.
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