11 November 2026
A hockey game that ends 3-2 in a shootout can settle three different bets three different ways. One bettor cashes a moneyline ticket, another loses a puck line favorite, and a third sees a regulation bet come back as a loser even though the team they backed went home with the extra point. Knowing which part of the game each market counts is the foundation of NHL betting, and it is easier to learn before money is down than after a grading dispute.
How the main NHL betting markets work
Three markets cover most NHL wagers: the moneyline, the puck line and the total. The moneyline asks who wins. The puck line is hockey's version of a point spread. Totals ask how many goals will be scored, either in the game or, in some markets, by one team.
The puck line is commonly fixed at -1.5 for the favorite and +1.5 for the underdog, according to a Caesars hockey betting guide. Hockey is a low-scoring sport. A one-goal margin is common, and a spread of several goals, as in basketball or football, would be meaningless. A fixed 1.5-goal line gives bettors a simple question: does the favorite win by two or more, or does the underdog keep it close or win?
The rules for covering follow from that number. As FOX Sports explains, a favorite on the puck line must win by two or more goals to cover. An underdog covers by winning outright or by losing by exactly one goal. Because the half-goal removes any chance of a tie against the spread, there are no pushes on a standard 1.5 line. Every ticket wins or loses.
The puck line and the moneyline are therefore two ways of backing the same team, with different conditions attached. Backing the favorite on the moneyline needs only a win. Backing the same team on the puck line needs a win by a margin. The sections below show why the details of "a win" matter so much in hockey.
Regulation betting vs full-game betting
The word "moneyline" covers two products, and many mistakes come from confusing them. A standard 2-way NHL moneyline has two outcomes, Team A or Team B, and it includes overtime and the shootout, as odds pages such as TheLines describe it. If the game is tied after 60 minutes and goes to a shootout, the team that wins it wins your bet. Nothing about how the game was decided changes the grade.
The 3-way moneyline is a different bet. It is also called the regulation line or the 60-minute line, and it counts only what happens in the first 60 minutes, FanDuel's betting guide explains. Overtime and the shootout do not count. The three outcomes are Team A winning in regulation, Team B winning in regulation, or the game being tied at the end of 60 minutes.
That third outcome is the point. Suppose you back the home team on a 3-way line and the game is level at 2-2 after three periods. The tie result wins for those who bet on a tie, and your home-team ticket loses, even if the home team scores in overtime a minute later. On a 2-way line, the same ticket would have won.
The practical consequence is that the two lines are not interchangeable, and their prices differ for that reason. A team that wins in regulation is a narrower outcome than a team that wins by any route, so the regulation price on a favorite is usually longer than the full-game price. Players who look at a 3-way number and assume it is the "regular" moneyline are the ones most likely to be surprised. Before placing a bet, check the market label and read the rules text. If a listing says regulation, 60 minutes or 3-way, it stops at the final horn of the third period.
How overtime and shootouts change settlement
Once regulation ends level, the game is no longer decided the way it was for the first hour, and that is where settlement gets interesting. In NHL betting, a shootout win is recorded as a one-goal victory in the official NHL record, as the guide at odds.guru describes it. The final score in the books shows the winner ahead by a single goal, even though the shootout itself involved several attempts.
Run that through the puck line rules. A favorite at -1.5 must win by two or more goals to cover. If it wins in a shootout, the record shows a one-goal win, so the favorite does not cover. The underdog at +1.5 covers because it lost by exactly one goal. The favorite won the game and the point, and the favorite bettor still loses the ticket.
The same logic applies to the 2-way and 3-way moneylines, with opposite results. On the 2-way line the shootout winner is the winner of the bet. On the 3-way line the shootout is outside the wager, so the bet on a regulation winner is already lost and the tie result has already won.
An example makes the split concrete. A game ends 3-3 after 60 minutes, and the road team wins in the shootout. The grading looks like this:
- 2-way moneyline: the road team wins.
- 3-way moneyline: the tie result wins, and both team results lose.
- Puck line: the road team is recorded as a one-goal winner, so a road favorite at -1.5 loses and a home underdog at +1.5 covers.
Overtime works the same way in principle. It extends a game that would otherwise have ended level, and the markets that include it grade differently from the ones that do not. A bettor who understands this can decide in advance which risk he wants. If you do not want a coin-flip shootout deciding your wager, the regulation line removes it by design, and the cost is that you must be right about the first 60 minutes.
Empty-net goals and total-goals betting
Team totals are where hockey's late-game habits matter. NHL team totals include empty-net goals and exclude shootout goals, according to an NHL document published in March 2025. When a trailing team pulls its goalie for an extra skater and the opponent scores into the open net, that goal counts toward the opponent's team total. It is a real goal in the game record.
This changes how a late game looks from the over side. An "over" bettor whose team is protecting a lead has a second path to the number: an empty-net goal in the final minutes. A team that sits one goal short of its total with a lead and a minute to play has a real chance of getting there. An under bettor, by contrast, can see a comfortable ticket spoiled by a goal that has no bearing on how the game was played for the first 58 minutes.
Shootout goals do the opposite. They are excluded, so a team that scores twice in a shootout gets no credit toward its team total. That keeps the total tied to the goals scored in play and prevents the skills competition from distorting the number.
The table below pulls together the treatment of each market as described above.
Market | Counts | Does not count
Team total | Empty-net goals | Shootout goals
2-way moneyline | Overtime and shootout | Nothing excluded
3-way moneyline | First 60 minutes | Overtime and shootout
Puck line | Winning margin (shootout win recorded as 1 goal) | A shootout win as a 2-goal margin
Rules for game totals and period markets can vary, so read the wording on each market. The team-total treatment applies to the NHL document cited above, and a bettor should check how any specific listing handles empty-net and extra-time goals before staking money.
Puck line versus moneyline strategy
The choice between the puck line and the moneyline comes down to a trade. Backing a strong favorite on the moneyline asks only that the team wins. Backing it at -1.5 asks for a win by two or more. The second condition is harder, and the price on the puck line reflects that. The puck line generally pays more for a favorite than the moneyline does, because the bet takes on the risk of narrow wins.
Narrow wins are common in hockey. A favorite can control the game and still win 3-2, or win in overtime, or win in a shootout. All of those results cash a moneyline ticket and lose a -1.5 puck line ticket. The empty-net goal matters here too. A favorite leading by one late can finish with a two-goal margin when the opponent pulls its goalie, which is one reason a bettor on the favorite sometimes sees a puck line ticket rescued in the last minute.
The underdog side runs the other way. A +1.5 puck line asks only that the underdog win or lose by a single goal, so it covers every shootout loss, every overtime loss and every one-goal regulation loss. A bettor who likes an underdog to compete but not necessarily to win can use the puck line to take that view, accepting a shorter price in return for more room for error.
A sensible habit is to decide the question before choosing the market. If your read is that the favorite wins, use the moneyline. If your read is that the favorite wins comfortably, the puck line fits. If you think the game will be tight, the underdog at +1.5 or the regulation market, which can pay on a tie, may reflect your view better. Whatever the choice, check whether the listing is 2-way or 3-way, and read how the book handles overtime and the shootout, before the puck drops.