NHL Betting: Does Overtime Count?

Few questions cause more confusion among new hockey bettors than the overtime issue. You back a team on the moneyline, they trail by a goal heading into the third period, claw back to tie it, and then lose in a shootout. Did you win or lose? The answer depends entirely on which bet type you placed — and getting this wrong is an expensive education. Overtime and shootout rules vary across NHL betting markets, and understanding which bets include extra time and which do not is essential before you put a dollar on the board.

See also the NHL 3-way 60-minute betting guide.

How Overtime Affects the Moneyline

The standard NHL two-way moneyline includes overtime and the shootout. If the game is tied after 60 minutes, play continues into a five-minute three-on-three overtime period, and if the game remains tied, a shootout determines the winner. The team that wins — whether in regulation, overtime, or a shootout — is the moneyline winner. The team that loses in any of those phases is the moneyline loser.

This is the most important rule for new bettors to internalize. A regulation tie does not void your moneyline bet. The game continues until one team wins, and your bet settles based on that final result. If you backed the Tampa Bay Lightning at -140 and they win in a shootout, you collect as though they won 5-0 in regulation. The margin and the method are irrelevant — only the final W matters.

The inclusion of overtime in the moneyline affects pricing. Because overtime and shootouts add uncertainty — a five-minute three-on-three period is chaotic, and shootouts are essentially a coin flip — the moneyline for evenly matched teams is tighter than it would be in a 60-minute-only market. The favorite cannot be as heavily priced because the probability of the game reaching overtime and being decided by a skills competition dilutes their edge. This uncertainty is why the three-way 60-minute moneyline, which excludes overtime, often offers longer odds on both sides.

One nuance worth noting: overtime in the regular season is three-on-three, which produces a goal quickly in most cases. Playoff overtime is five-on-five and continues in full 20-minute periods until someone scores. Playoff overtime can last one minute or four extra periods, and the moneyline remains live through all of it. Betting a playoff game on the moneyline means you are committed for however long it takes, and marathon overtime games are not unusual in the postseason.

How Overtime Affects the Puck Line

The puck line is where the overtime question gets tricky. On most sportsbooks, the standard puck line (-1.5/+1.5) includes overtime and shootout goals. A team that wins 2-1 in overtime covers the +1.5 for the losing team (because they lost by one) but does not cover the -1.5 for the winning team (because they won by one, not two).

Shootout results are recorded as one goal for the winning team in the official score. A game that is tied 2-2 after regulation and overtime becomes 3-2 on the scoresheet after the shootout. That means the winning team won by one goal, which covers the +1.5 underdog puck line for the losing team but not the -1.5 for the winner. In practice, every shootout result is a one-goal game, which means the -1.5 puck line favorite can never cover in a shootout. This is a critical detail that many bettors miss.

The implication for puck line strategy is significant. If you are betting the favorite at -1.5, your bet can only win in regulation. An overtime or shootout win for the favorite is a puck line loss, because the margin will be exactly one goal. This means the -1.5 favorite bettor needs a multi-goal regulation win, and the 20-25% chance of the game going to overtime represents a substantial chunk of scenarios where the favorite wins but the puck line does not cover.

For the +1.5 underdog, overtime is a gift. Any game that goes to overtime and is decided by one goal — which is every overtime and shootout result — is a puck line cover for the underdog. The underdog can lose the game outright and still win the puck line bet, as long as the loss is by a single goal. This is why the +1.5 puck line underdog covers at such a high rate historically: it captures every one-goal loss, every overtime loss, every shootout loss, and every outright win.

How Overtime Affects Totals

Totals bets — the over/under on combined goals — include overtime and shootout goals on the standard market. A game that ends 2-2 in regulation, goes to overtime, and is decided 3-2 by an overtime goal counts as five total goals. A game that goes to a shootout and is recorded as 3-2 also counts as five total goals for betting purposes.

This inclusion of overtime and shootout goals adds a slight upward bias to actual totals compared to what 60-minute scoring would produce. In a season where roughly 25% of games go to overtime, each of those games adds at least one extra goal to the combined total (from the overtime winner or the shootout winner). Across the full schedule, this overtime bonus inflates the average total by a fraction of a goal per game, and sportsbooks build this inflation into their posted numbers.

60-Minute Bets and Overtime

The three-way 60-minute moneyline is the only standard market that explicitly excludes overtime. When you bet the 60-minute line, the game settles at the end of regulation. If one team leads after three periods, that team wins. If the game is tied, the draw wins and both team sides lose.

This exclusion of overtime creates different pricing dynamics. On the 60-minute line, both teams are priced at longer odds than the two-way moneyline because the draw absorbs 20-25% of the total probability. A team that might be -150 on the two-way moneyline could be +110 or +120 on the 60-minute line, because their probability of winning specifically in regulation is lower than their probability of winning the game overall.

Some sportsbooks also offer 60-minute totals — an over/under on goals scored in the first three periods only, excluding overtime. These lines are set lower than the standard totals, typically by half a goal, reflecting the absence of the overtime scoring buffer. A game with a standard total of 6 might have a 60-minute total of 5.5. The 60-minute total is a purer measure of regulation scoring, uncontaminated by the randomness of overtime and shootouts, and some bettors prefer it for that reason.

60-minute puck lines are less common but available on some platforms. These settle at the end of regulation, meaning the favorite must lead by two goals after three periods. An overtime-bound game that is tied after regulation is a loss for the 60-minute puck line favorite and a cover for the 60-minute puck line underdog. The pricing on 60-minute puck lines is more generous for the favorite than the standard puck line, because the bet carries a higher degree of difficulty.

Shootout Implications for Bettors

The shootout is the most random element in NHL betting. It is a skills competition that bears little resemblance to the five-on-five hockey that preceded it, and it is decided by individual performances — a deke, a glove save, a post — that are essentially unpredictable from a team-level analysis standpoint.

For moneyline bettors, the shootout is a coin flip attached to the end of an overtime period. Teams with historically strong shootout records do exist, but the variance is enormous, and shootout winning percentages are among the least stable statistics in hockey. A team that won 70% of their shootouts last season might win 40% this season with largely the same roster. Banking on shootout performance is one of the least reliable strategies in NHL betting.

The shootout’s impact on totals is minimal but nonzero. A shootout winner adds one goal to the final score, which can push a total over the line in games that were sitting right at the number. A game with a total of 5.5 that is tied 2-2 after regulation and overtime produces five goals. If it goes to a shootout, the final score becomes 3-2, and the total is still five. The shootout goal pushes the total from 4 to 5 in this scenario — not enough to clear 5.5. But in a game tied 3-3, the shootout winner makes it 4-3, pushing the total to seven, which clears most posted lines. These marginal scenarios are rare but worth understanding, because a bettor who is aware of them can make better decisions in live betting situations where the game is heading toward overtime.

For puck line bettors, the shootout is irrelevant in terms of covering -1.5, because a shootout always produces a one-goal margin. The -1.5 favorite cannot cover via shootout, and the +1.5 underdog always covers. This means that once a game reaches overtime, the puck line underdog has already won their bet regardless of what happens next. Knowing this in advance helps you evaluate the puck line’s value — you are essentially getting a free cover on any game that goes to extra time.

The Overtime Cheat Sheet

The rules are straightforward once you memorize them, but the consequences of forgetting are real. A quick reference for how overtime and shootouts affect each bet type saves you from the kind of mistake that turns a winning night into a losing one.

Standard two-way moneyline: includes overtime and shootout. Winner takes all. Puck line (-1.5/+1.5): includes overtime and shootout goals. Shootouts always produce a one-goal margin. Game totals (over/under): include overtime and shootout goals. Three-way 60-minute moneyline: excludes overtime. Draw is a possible outcome. 60-minute totals: exclude overtime goals. Period-specific bets: only include goals scored in the specified period; overtime is its own entity.

The bettors who know these rules cold never get caught off guard. The ones who assume — who think “a win is a win” without checking the fine print — learn the hard way that in hockey betting, the details after 60 minutes matter as much as the 60 minutes themselves. Read the rules, understand the settlement terms, and let the overtime take care of itself.

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