I was able to dig up the stats I put together when college hockey as a
whole switched from a 10-minute overtime to 5 minutes.  BTW, this
information was originally posted by me to HOCKEY-L on May 16, 1990.
 
Back then, I compared the results from the 1988-89 season (10-min OT)
to the 1989-90 season (5-min OT).  However, I learned later that the
CCHA was actually using a 5-min OT in 1988-89 while the rest of
college hockey used a 10-min OT that season.  So in posting these
numbers, I have adjusted the 1988-89 totals and taken out the CCHA
games.  The 1989-90 and 1993-94 totals include all games involving a
DivI team.
 
LEGEND: GP-total games played involving a DivI team; #OT & %OT-of GP,
the number and percentage of games that went into OT; #DEC & %DEC-of
(#OT), the number and percentage of games that had a winner; #TIE & %TIE-
of (#OT), the number and percentage of games that ended tied; TIES/GP-
ratio of total ties to games played.
 
         GP || #OT  %OT  ||#DEC %DEC  ||#TIE %TIE  || TIES/GP
1988-89 524 ||  72 13.7% || 45  62.5% || 27  37.5% || 5.153%  10min/no CCHA
1989-90 688 ||  97 14.1% || 49  50.5% || 47  49.5% || 6.831%  5min
1993-94 742 || 123 16.6% || 58  47.2% || 65  52.8% || 8.760%  5min
 
* Percentage of games not decided in regulation has increased.
* Ratio of games decided in OT to games gone into OT has decreased.
* Ratio of games that ended tied to games that went into OT has increased.
* Ratio of games that ended tied to all games played has increased.
 
BTW, when all games were included for 1988-89, the ratio of games tied
to games played was 6.587%.  I did not think 6.587% to 6.831% for
1989-90 was a significant jump.  However, as I said, those were the
original numbers which were kind of phony since 1988-89's 6.587%
included 10-min OT games played in some leagues and 5-min OT games played
in the CCHA, which had more ties than any other league by a large margin.
I think the numbers as they are shown above represent a pretty big
increase in the tie ratio.
 
It might be interesting to do up some similar stats for the years
between 1989-90 and 1993-94, to see if they also seem to show an
increase in ties, as well as to add in games from a year or two prior
to 1988-89.  From the above, it seems that the shorter overtime HAS
led to more ties, and if this is a bad thing, then maybe a rules
change is needed.  But I would argue for a move back to 10-min OT
instead of a shootout.
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93
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