Overtime Rule Changes Coming to Worlds, World Junior Championship

The IIHF has announced plans to make changes to overtime rules for top-division IIHF tournaments in men’s, women’s and junior categories. That will include both the men’s and women’s World Championship, as well as the World Junior Championship. The changes will begin to be implemented in the 2017 iterations of each tournament.

In preliminary rounds, overtime will shift to a five-minute 3-on-3 format, with a three-round shootout and tie-break shots when necessary.

In all playoff games after preliminary rounds, with the exception of gold medal games, overtime will be 10 minutes of 4-on-4 play. Shootouts will last five rounds, with tie-breaking rounds to follow when required.

All gold medal games will have a 20-minute frame of 5-on-5 hockey, which will be followed by a five-round shootout that also has room for tie-breaking rounds when it can’t be settled in five rounds.

This rule change will not affect the 2016 World Championship, currently in progress.