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Ties, overtime and the loser point

By Justis, a GM and a goalie  ·  October 10, 2026

Every standings table is an argument about what a tie is worth. Here’s how USA Hockey, the NHL, the PWHL and the NCAA settle it, and how to settle it for your league before the first puck drops.

The rulebook runs the game, your league runs the table.

Here’s the part most people get wrong. USA Hockey’s playing rules don’t award standings points. Rule 638 covers tied games, and nowhere does the 2025-29 book say what a win, a tie or an overtime loss is worth in the table. The NCAA book is the same: Rule 91 breaks ties, and points aren’t in it.

The NHL and the PWHL are leagues, so their books do write the table (NHL Rule 78.1, PWHL Rule 80.1). Everyone else gets their points from whoever runs the competition. If your adult league plays USA Hockey rules, that’s you, or your affiliate if it has written its own.

The short version:

USA Hockey: a tie can stand.

Rule 638 only kicks in when a game has to produce a winner. Tied after three periods and nobody needs a winner? That’s a tie. Shake hands.

When a winner is required, Rule 638(a) recommends this:

  1. A five-minute rest.
  2. A 10-minute overtime, sudden victory. First goal wins.
  3. Never fewer than three skaters plus a goalie a side, even with penalties stacking up.
  4. No goal? Run it again.

Unexpired penalties carry into overtime (638(b)). A shootout can follow the overtime or replace it outright, run on the penalty-shot procedure in Rule 406(c) and (d), and a player serving a minor or a misconduct can’t shoot (638(c)). A team that won’t play the overtime or the shootout takes the loss (638(d)).

Then the Note under Rule 638 hands the details to affiliates and local governing bodies: how long overtime runs, how many there are, the intermissions, and whether the shootout is one round or several. The casebook adds that shootouts usually run three or five shooters a side, then go sudden death one shooter at a time (Rule 638, Situation 5).

NHL: two points, or three past regulation.

Win in regulation and you get 2 points (Rule 78.1). Tied after 60 minutes, each team banks a point on the spot. Then it’s five minutes of 3-on-3, and the first goal takes the extra point (Rule 84.1).

Two wrinkles worth knowing. Pull your goalie in overtime and lose the game with the net empty, and you give back the point you banked, unless the goalie came off for a delayed penalty (84.2). And if overtime solves nothing, it’s a shootout: three shooters a side, then sudden death, and nobody shoots twice until every eligible player has gone (84.4).

The shootout winner gets one goal added to the final score. The shooter isn’t credited with a goal, and the losing goalie isn’t charged with one (84.4). In the playoffs there’s no shootout, just full 20-minute periods until somebody scores (84.5).

Do the math. A regulation game puts 2 points on the table. A game that goes past regulation puts 3.

PWHL: three points on every game.

The PWHL pays 3 for a regulation win, 2 for an overtime or shootout win and 1 for an overtime or shootout loss (Rule 80.1). Overtime matches the NHL: a point each at the end of regulation, then five minutes of 3-on-3 for the extra one (86.1).

The shootout runs longer. Five shooters a side before sudden death, and the same shooter can go as often as her team likes (86.4). The playoffs drop the shootout for 20-minute periods until a goal (86.5).

Every game is worth exactly 3, however it ends, and a regulation win pays the most.

NCAA: a tie, then a shootout anyway.

In the college regular season, a game tied after 60 minutes gets a two-minute break and five minutes of 3-on-3 sudden victory. No goal, and the game is declared a tie (Rule 91.1). Then both teams go to a mandatory three-player shootout anyway (91.2, Appendix F).

After the first three shooters it’s sudden victory with new shooters, and those first three can’t go again until the rest of the bench has shot (Appendix B). When somebody has to advance in the postseason, it’s 20-minute sudden-victory periods instead (91.4). What the tie and the shootout are worth in a conference table isn’t in the book.

Picking a points system for your rec league.

None of the four books hands a beer league its table, so write your own. Three shapes cover most leagues:

Then make four calls and write them down:

  1. Overtime or straight to the shootout. Rec ice is booked tight, and a 10-minute overtime may not fit before the next group skates. Rule 638(c) lets a shootout replace overtime entirely.
  2. The shootout format. Three shooters or five, and whether the same shooter can go twice.
  3. What a shootout goal counts for. The pro books add one goal to the winner’s final and credit it to no player. Decide whether your goals-for column and your scoring race do the same.
  4. The tiebreak order. Two teams level on points need a rule: head-to-head, wins, goal difference, whatever you pick. None of the four playing rulebooks sets one for you.

Pick before the first puck drops. A points system changed in week six is the fastest way to start an argument in the parking lot.

Set it once and let the table do the math.

On Bifrost Sports, a league sets its rules per season, points included, and the season’s rules sit on a public rules page anyone can open Available now. A USA Hockey season starts at 2 for a win and 1 for a tie or an overtime loss. The league can change those values until the first game is played. Then they lock, and a change of heart waits for next season.

Standings score straight from the finals with the season’s own points Available now. And when a scorekeeper runs the game in Tower’s Rec Mode In beta, a tied horn follows the season’s path: a shootout, another overtime, or the tie stands.

More for league people on the Leagues page, and for the scorer’s table on the Tower Scoring page.

Bifrost Sports isn’t affiliated with USA Hockey, the NHL, the PWHL, the NCAA or any league or governing body.

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