USA men’s hockey GM Bill Guerin on leadership, fighting and bonding
USA men’s hockey general manager Bill Guerin, Feb. 7, 2026 in Milan.
Olympics hockey, just like the NHL, doesn’t allow for ties.
Canada and Czechia are the latest two nations to embody that, as their quarter-final matchup in the 2026 Winter Olympic games headed to overtime after a back-and-forth affair during regulation.
A late goal from Team Canada’s Nick Suzuki tied the matchup at three goals apiece with time ticking down in the third. Now, both squads head to overtime looking to keep their medal hopes alive.
There are differences between NHL rules and Olympic rules on how overtimes and shootouts are conducted. The maximum length of a sudden death overtime depends on the round in which the game is being played. And the shootout format is totally different from the one used by the NHL.
Here’s an explainer on how overtimes and shootouts work in Olympic hockey:
Olympic overtime rules
If the teams are tied after 60 minutes in the preliminary round, a five-minute sudden-death overtime will be played at 3-on-3. Unlike the NHL, teams don’t change ends for overtime.
Overtime in a playoff game, along with the bronze medal game, lasts a maximum of 10 minutes. It’s also 3-on-3, as opposed to 5-on-5 in NHL playoff games.
In the gold medal game, teams play 20-minute 3-on-3 overtime periods, separated by 15-minute intermissions, until someone scores. Teams don’t change sides for the first overtime but do for subsequent overtimes.
Olympic shootout rules
If overtime doesn’t settle a game outside of the gold medal game, there will be a shootout. The winner of a coin toss gets to choose whether their team shoots first or second.
The format differs from the NHL, with five shooters per team instead of three. If nothing is settled after five rounds, then each round is sudden death as in the NHL. But there’s another difference. Olympic teams can use the same shooters multiple times during the sudden death rounds (think back to TJ Oshie in the 2014 Olympics). They also can change goaltenders.
In the sudden death round, the team that shot second in the first five rounds will shoot first. The rounds continue until one team finishes with one more goal than the other. That team is declared the winner.
Overtime games at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Feb. 15 – Switzerland 4, Czechia 3: Switzerland’s Dean Kukan scored at 1:49 of overtime.
USA TODAY’s Joe Rivera contributed to this article.
