How to Keep Score in Hockey

Hockey scoring looks simple on the surface — get the puck in the net, that's a goal — but the details around it (assists, shots on goal, power plays, overtime) trip up a lot of first-time scorekeepers. A team scores 1 point for every goal, the puck must fully cross the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar, and whichever team has more goals when the game ends wins. Everything else below fills in the details.

What Counts as a Goal

A goal is scored when the entire puck crosses the goal line, between the goal posts and under the crossbar. It doesn't matter who last touched it — if it's an own team's player who accidentally knocks it into their own net, that's still a goal, credited to the attacking team (an "own goal" in hockey counts for the other side, not against the shooter's team as a separate stat).

A few situational rules that come up often enough to know at a high level:

• Kicked-in pucks don't count. A player can use skates to redirect or stop a puck, but a goal can't be scored by intentionally kicking or "distinct kicking motion" the puck into the net. A puck that deflects off a skate without a kicking motion can still count.
• The crease matters less than people think. Older rules disallowed goals if an attacking player interfered with the goalie in the crease. Today's rules focus on whether the goalie was actually impaired from making the save, not just whether a skate touched the blue paint. Refs review close calls.
• A puck that goes in after time expires doesn't count, even if it was already past the goal line when the horn sounds — timing is based on when the puck crosses the line, reviewed by video if it's close.

For casual and youth games, the practical version is: puck fully in the net, no kicking motion, game clock hadn't hit zero. That covers the vast majority of goals you'll ever need to judge.

Assists: Primary and Secondary

Up to two players can be credited with an assist on a goal — the pass (or passes) that set it up:

• Primary assist — the player who passed the puck directly to the goal scorer
• Secondary assist — the player who passed to whoever got the primary assist (one pass earlier in the sequence)

A goal can have zero, one, or two assists. If a player scores off a rebound they created themselves, or picks the puck up in open ice with no teammate touch beforehand, there's no assist at all. The chain breaks if the puck is touched by the opposing team in between, or if too much time passes between the pass and the goal (scorers use judgment here, generally a few seconds).

Points are a player's combined total of goals plus assists — a player with 20 goals and 15 assists has 35 points on the season. This is the standard way to compare offensive production, since it credits playmaking, not just finishing.

Shots on Goal vs. Goals

A shot on goal is any puck attempt that would have gone in the net if not for the goalie making a save, or that actually scores. It does not include:

• Shots that miss the net entirely (wide or over the crossbar)
• Shots blocked by a defender before reaching the goalie

Shots on goal is tracked separately from the score itself — it's a measure of offensive pressure, not part of the goal tally. A team can outshoot its opponent 35-20 and still lose if the other team converts more efficiently. When you're scorekeeping, goals and shots on goal are two different counters, both worth tracking if your scoreboard supports it.

Periods and the Game Clock

Hockey is played in three periods, each running a countdown clock (standard is 20 minutes per period at most competitive levels; youth and rec leagues often shorten this). Two things to know about the clock:

• The clock stops for whistles — goals, penalties, offsides, icing, puck out of play — unlike soccer's running clock. This is why a "20-minute period" can take much longer than 20 minutes of real time.
• Between periods, teams switch ends of the ice. Scoreboards typically track period number and time remaining separately from the score itself.

If the score is tied after three periods, the game moves to overtime (see below).

How Penalties Affect Scoring

A penalty sends a player to the penalty box for a set time (commonly 2 minutes for a minor penalty, 5 for a major), and their team plays with one fewer skater on the ice — this is a power play for the other team and being shorthanded for the penalized team.

• Power-play goal — a goal scored by the team with the extra skater while the penalty is active. Often noted separately in stats (e.g., "PPG" next to a player's goal total).
• Shorthanded goal — a goal scored by the team that's down a skater, while still shorthanded. These count exactly the same as any other goal (1 point, same as always) but are noted separately because they're harder to score and reflect well on the shorthanded team.
• Minor penalties end early if a power-play goal is scored against the penalized team (for most minor penalties) — the penalized player can leave the box once the goal is scored, restoring both teams to full strength.
• Major penalties (5 minutes) run the full duration regardless of how many goals are scored against the shorthanded team.

None of this changes how a goal is counted — a power-play goal and an even-strength goal are worth the same 1 point. The "power play" and "shorthanded" labels are just context for how the goal happened, useful for stats but not for the running score.

If you're tracking penalty time during a game, a dedicated penalty timer keeps the countdown visible and accurate without anyone eyeballing a stopwatch — much easier than doing it by memory during a fast rec-league game.

Overtime and Shootout Scoring

If the score is tied after regulation, what happens next depends on the level of play:

• Regular-season overtime (many leagues, including the NHL) is a shortened period, often played with fewer skaters per side (3-on-3 is common at the pro level) to open up scoring chances. First goal wins.
• If overtime doesn't produce a goal, many leagues move to a shootout — a set number of players from each team take penalty-shot-style attempts, alternating, and whichever team scores more shootout goals is credited the extra point in the standings. A shootout goal only counts for determining the winner; it is not added to the losing goalie's or scorer's regular game statistics as a "real" goal in most record-keeping.
• Playoff overtime is typically different from regular-season OT — it's usually full 5-on-5 with sudden death, and periods repeat until someone scores, however long that takes. There's no shootout in playoff hockey in most leagues.
• Youth and rec leagues often skip overtime and shootouts entirely, ending in a tie — check your league's specific rules, since this varies a lot more than at the pro level.

Tracking Score for a Rec or Youth Game

If you're scorekeeping a casual, rec-league, or youth hockey game, here's the practical version:

1. Track goals for each team as a running total — that's the score, full stop.
2. Note who scored and who assisted, if your league keeps individual stats — most casual games skip this and just track the team score.
3. Track shots on goal separately, if you want it — it's a nice-to-have stat, not required for the score itself.
4. Watch the clock and periods — three periods, clock stops on whistles at most levels (some very casual leagues run a continuous clock to keep games on schedule — check before the game starts).
5. Track penalty time if your league calls power plays — a simple countdown timer per penalty is enough; you don't need to track power-play goals separately unless your league wants that stat.
6. If tied at the end, check your league's overtime rules before assuming there's a shootout — many rec leagues just end in a tie.

For the score itself, you don't need anything hockey-specific — a big, clear running total that both teams and any spectators can see is what actually matters during the game. A free online hockey scoreboard handles the team totals, periods, and penalty tracking without you needing a whiteboard or a phone calculator. If you'd rather score on paper, a printable hockey score sheet works just as well for tracking goals, assists, and penalties by hand.

If you're also trying to make sense of NHL standings — why a shootout loss still earns a point, or how tiebreakers work — that's a separate system from in-game scoring. See our guide to the NHL points system for how individual game results turn into a spot in the standings.

Hockey Scoring FAQ

How do you keep score in hockey?

Count one point for every goal — the puck fully crossing the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar. Add up goals for each team throughout the three periods; whichever team has more goals when the game ends wins. If the score is tied after regulation, overtime and possibly a shootout decide the winner, depending on the level of play.

What counts as a goal in hockey?

The entire puck must cross the goal line, between the posts and under the crossbar, without the attacking player using a kicking motion to put it in. It counts regardless of who last touched it, including deflections off a defender or goalie.

What's the difference between a goal and an assist?

A goal is credited to the player who put the puck in the net. An assist is credited to up to two players whose pass led directly to that goal — the primary assist (the last pass before the goal) and the secondary assist (the pass before that). Goals plus assists equal a player's total points.

Do shots on goal count toward the score?

No. Shots on goal measure how many puck attempts were on target (scored or saved by the goalie) — they're a separate stat from the actual score. Only goals count toward the score shown on the board.

Does a power-play goal count for more than a regular goal?

No, every goal is worth exactly 1 point regardless of how it happened. "Power-play goal" and "shorthanded goal" are just labels describing the game situation when the goal was scored — useful for stats, not for the running score.

What happens if the score is tied at the end of regulation?

It depends on the league. Many leagues play a shortened overtime period, and if that doesn't settle it, a shootout decides the winner. Playoff hockey typically skips the shootout and plays full sudden-death overtime periods until someone scores. Many youth and rec leagues end in a tie instead.

Score Your Next Game

A free online hockey scoreboard tracks team totals, periods, and penalty time without a whiteboard. Prefer paper? Grab a printable hockey score sheet for goals, assists, and penalties.

Tracking penalty time specifically? A penalty timer keeps the countdown visible for both teams.

Curious how a single game's result feeds into the standings? Read how the NHL points system works.