The most common NHL final score is 3-2, which came up in 13.22% of regular-season games in our archive. The key margin is one goal: 40.24% of games finished a single goal apart, far ahead of any other margin. Three-goal wins are more common than two-goal wins, at 23.52% against 19.44%.
Every figure below is counted over the same 7,428 regular-season games. What overtime does to each market is on the NHL overtime rules page.
What is the most common NHL final score?
3-2. It came up in 982 of 7,428 regular-season games in our archive, 13.22% of them, ahead of 4-3 on 11.46% and 4-1 on 7.85%. The top three scores between them account for 32.53% of all games, and the twelve below cover 79.40%.
| Final score | Games | Share | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-2 | 982 | 13.22% | 1 |
| 4-3 | 851 | 11.46% | 1 |
| 4-1 | 583 | 7.85% | 3 |
| 2-1 | 548 | 7.38% | 1 |
| 5-2 | 543 | 7.31% | 3 |
| 4-2 | 484 | 6.52% | 2 |
| 3-1 | 398 | 5.36% | 2 |
| 5-4 | 368 | 4.95% | 1 |
| 5-3 | 315 | 4.24% | 2 |
| 5-1 | 306 | 4.12% | 4 |
| 6-3 | 295 | 3.97% | 3 |
| 3-0 | 224 | 3.02% | 3 |
Regular-season games, 2020-21 through 2025-26, winner's score first. n=7,428.
NHL winning margins
One goal is the key number in hockey the way three is in football. 2,989 regular-season games, 40.24%, finished a single goal apart. Nothing else is close: the next most common margin is three goals on 23.52%, and after that two goals on 19.44%.
| Margin | Games | Share | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 goal | 2,989 | 40.24% | 40.24% |
| 2 goals | 1,444 | 19.44% | 59.68% |
| 3 goals | 1,747 | 23.52% | 83.20% |
| 4 goals | 808 | 10.88% | 94.08% |
| 5 goals | 277 | 3.73% | 97.81% |
| 6 goals | 104 | 1.40% | 99.21% |
| 7 goals | 45 | 0.61% | 99.81% |
| 8 goals | 10 | 0.13% | 99.95% |
| 9 goals | 4 | 0.05% | 100.00% |
Regular-season games, n=7,428. There are no ties: every NHL game is played to a decision, so no game finishes level.
Why three-goal wins beat two-goal wins
That ordering is the one genuinely odd thing in the table. Margins normally fall away as they get bigger, and here the sequence goes 40.24%, 19.44%, 23.52%, then back down. Three-goal wins outnumber two-goal wins by 303 games.
The explanation usually given is the empty net. A team trailing late pulls its goalie for an extra skater, and a goal into the empty net stretches the margin by one without the game having been any closer or further away. Our archive holds final scores and carries no flag for which goals were scored into an empty net, so we can show you the shape but we cannot test that explanation with this data, and we are not going to report it as though we had.
Why one goal is such a large share
Part of the answer is structural rather than about how hockey is played. A game still tied after 60 minutes goes to overtime, overtime is sudden death, and a shootout is credited as a single goal, so every game that gets past regulation finishes exactly one goal apart. 1,654 regular-season games in our archive did that, which is 55.3% of every one-goal game on the board. Only 1,335 one-goal games were settled inside regulation.
The same rule leaves a mark on the totals. A game that reaches overtime was tied at the horn, so its regulation total was an even number, and the extra goal makes the final an odd one. 5,062 of 7,428 regular-season games, 68.15%, finished on an odd total. What overtime does to each market is covered on our NHL overtime rules page.
What the margins mean for the puck line
The NHL puck line is fixed at a goal and a half, and our odds archive shows how fixed: 97.83% of 621,840 NHL spread quotes we hold were hung at exactly 1.5, across 8,044 games. So the margin table is the whole market. A −1.5 ticket needs a two-goal win, which happened in 4,439 games, 59.76%. A +1.5 ticket needs the game inside two goals, which happened 40.24% of the time.
Those are base rates over every game in the archive, not the record of a bet. They say nothing about any particular matchup and nothing about whether the price attached to either side was worth taking, which depends entirely on the odds offered. Our puck line explainer covers how those prices are built.
How many goals are scored in an NHL game?
6.20 on average across 7,428 regular-season games. The most common single figure is 5 goals, and the middle of the distribution sits between five and seven.
| Total goals | Games | Share | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 102 | 1.37% | 1.37% |
| 2 | 114 | 1.53% | 2.91% |
| 3 | 772 | 10.39% | 13.30% |
| 4 | 596 | 8.02% | 21.32% |
| 5 | 1,641 | 22.09% | 43.42% |
| 6 | 829 | 11.16% | 54.58% |
| 7 | 1,518 | 20.44% | 75.01% |
| 8 | 562 | 7.57% | 82.58% |
| 9 | 751 | 10.11% | 92.69% |
| 10 | 207 | 2.79% | 95.48% |
| 11 | 228 | 3.07% | 98.55% |
| 12 | 54 | 0.73% | 99.27% |
| 13 | 43 | 0.58% | 99.85% |
Regular-season games, n=7,428. Totals with fewer than 20 games are omitted from the table but are included in the cumulative column and in the mean.
The three numbers books hang
Our odds archive holds 648,494 NHL total quotes across 8,045 games, and three numbers cover almost all of them: 6.5 on 33.67% of quotes, 6 on 33.66% and 5.5 on 28.83%. Here is how the score distribution above lands against each of them.
| Total | Over | Over share | Under share | Push share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 4,203 | 56.58% | 43.42% | 0.00% |
| 6 | 3,374 | 45.42% | 43.42% | 11.16% |
| 6.5 | 3,374 | 45.42% | 54.58% | 0.00% |
Regular-season games, n=7,428. This is the score distribution measured against three fixed numbers, not the record of a bet: a game counts as over 6.5 because its final total was 7 or more, not because a book posted 6.5 for that game. Six is a whole number, so it can push, and 829 games finished on exactly six goals.
How this was measured
- Source. stats.games for NHL: 7,945 completed games from 2021-01-13 to 2026-06-14 (2020-21 through 2025-26), taken from the free official NHL API. Score tables on this page use the 7,428 regular-season games only and say so; the 517 playoff games are excluded because playoff overtime follows different rules. Price context comes from odds.lines, 2020-09-01 to 2026-06-30.
- What a margin is. The absolute difference between the two final scores, including anything scored in overtime or credited for a shootout. No NHL game finishes level, so there is no zero-margin row.
- Overtime. Identified exactly rather than inferred: the NHL awards a losing team 1 standings point if and only if it lost after regulation, so a game went past 60 minutes precisely when one side holds that point. 1,654 regular-season games did.
- The empty-net question. We report that three-goal wins outnumber two-goal wins. We do not report why, because this archive holds final scores with no goal-level detail and therefore cannot identify an empty-net goal. The mechanism described on the page is the common explanation, labelled as untested.
- What these frequencies are not. Every figure here is a count over completed games, not a graded bet. A game is counted over a total because its final score exceeded that number, not because a sportsbook posted it for that game and a ticket won. Past frequencies are not forecasts.
- Prices. The line-frequency figures come from a capture grid of pre-game listings. They are not closing lines and no closing-line claim is made from them.
Next steps
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common NHL score?
3-2, in 982 of 7,428 regular-season games in our archive, 13.22%. 4-3 is second on 11.46% and 4-1 third on 7.85%.
What is the key number in NHL betting?
One goal. 40.24% of regular-season games in our archive finished a single goal apart, which is what makes the 1.5-goal puck line the market it is. Two-goal and three-goal margins are the next band, at 19.44% and 23.52%.
How often do NHL teams win by two or more goals?
59.76% of the time, 4,439 of 7,428 regular-season games. That is the margin a −1.5 puck line needs. It is a base rate over every game in the archive and not a record of any bet.
How many goals are scored in an average NHL game?
6.20 across 7,428 regular-season games in our archive. Books hang 6.5, 6 or 5.5 on almost every game, which is where that average sits.
Why are three-goal wins more common than two-goal wins in the NHL?
The usual explanation is the empty net: a trailing team pulls its goalie and concedes into the empty net, stretching the margin without the game having been less close. Our archive holds final scores with no goal-level detail, so we can measure that three-goal wins are more common and we cannot verify why.
Do NHL games end in a tie?
No. Regular-season games tied after 60 minutes go to a five-minute overtime and then a shootout, and playoff games play full overtime periods until someone scores. 22.38% of games in our archive needed one of those.
Related: NHL puck line explained · NHL overtime betting rules · NHL betting guide · NFL spreads and key numbers
Every figure on this page is a historical measurement of what already happened, produced by a committed, re-runnable script over our own odds archive. Past frequencies are not forecasts and are not betting advice: Nebula Insights publishes no picks, no selections and no recommended wagers. 18+ only.