Extra time, especially the shootout, has gifted Olympic hockey some of its most unforgettable instances.
During the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics in Norway, Peter Forsberg executed a legendary shootout maneuver that secured a gold medal for Sweden, was immortalized on a postage stamp in his native land, and has since been known among players as “the Forsberg” deke.
At the 2018 women’s tournament in PyeongChang, South Korea, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson masterfully triple-deked past Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados, followed by Maddie Rooney’s crucial save at the opposite net, sealing the gold for the American women.
However, such iconic moments will not reoccur in this year’s gold medal games in Milan, Italy, as the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has revised its overtime regulations.
For these Olympics, the federation has implemented updated rules, abolishing the shootout in the gold medal match and substituting it with 20-minute periods of three-on-three sudden-death overtime. Given that the new overtime regulations vary by tournament stage, here’s a breakdown of how games will be determined at each phase.
Quarterfinals and semifinals
During the preliminary round, games that went to overtime involved five minutes of sudden-death, three-on-three play, potentially followed by a five-round shootout. In the men’s preliminary stage, one overtime match took place where Switzerland defeated Czechia 4-3. The women’s tournament saw two such games: Germany’s 2-1 overtime victory against France and Switzerland’s 4-3 shootout triumph over Czechia.
As teams progress into the knockout phase of the competition, the sudden-death, three-on-three overtime period is extended from five to ten minutes. Should neither team score during this time, the winner will be determined by a shootout of at least five rounds. Notably, in the Olympics, unlike the NHL, teams are permitted to repeatedly use the same shooter after the initial five rounds, which is a new adjustment for the men’s competition.
Many hockey enthusiasts will recall T.J. Oshie’s remarkable shootout display at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia, where he made six consecutive shootout attempts for the United States, converting four of them against Russia’s Sergei Bobrovsky to clinch a preliminary round victory.
Among the most significant upsets in Olympic hockey history involved a 10-minute overtime period culminating in a shootout. The Czech Republic famously eliminated a formidable, star-laden Canadian team in the semifinal match of the 1998 Nagano Olympics in Japan. The legendary netminder Dominik Hašek famously denied all five of Canada’s shooters (Theo Fleury, Ray Bourque, Joe Nieuwendyk, Eric Lindros, and Brendan Shanahan) in the shootout, securing the win for the Czech Republic, who subsequently claimed gold.
That particular overtime contest was played five-on-five, a contrast to the three-on-three format adopted for this year’s tournament.
Gold-medal game
Here lies the most substantial alteration by the IIHF: the complete removal of the shootout. Should teams enter overtime in the gold-medal contest, they will engage in continuous 20-minute periods of sudden-death, three-on-three overtime until a decisive winning goal is netted.
This modification guarantees that any championship game extending past regulation time will conclude with a “golden goal”.
Arguably the most renowned golden goal in hockey lore occurred in 2010 during the Vancouver Olympics. A little over seven minutes into the 20-minute overtime frame, Sidney Crosby broke away from the side boards, received a pass from Jarome Iginla, and fired a shot past goaltender Ryan Miller to secure the victory.
That specific overtime period was contested four-on-four, meaning that if a gold medal game this year extends into overtime, players will enjoy greater open ice.