This game has millions of fans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In popularity, it is inferior only to football. Its rules and regulations were finalized in the middle of the twentieth century. In particular, this allowed us to give a short answer to the question of how many periods there are in hockey. There are three of them. But there are a number of significant details.
From the history of hockey
The generally accepted homeland of hockey is Canada. No one is going to challenge her primacy, but it should be noted that some medieval Dutch winter landscapes depict a game that we all love so much. It is impossible to confuse her with anything. Of course, in those ancient times, no one wondered how many periods in hockey. Most likely they played until they got bored. But by the beginning of the twentieth century, this folk game had undergone a complex evolution and every year more and more acquired the features of professional sports. Without observing the general rules of the game for everyone, it became impossible to live further. I had to develop uniform rules and, among other things, determine how many periods in hockey are enough to determine the winner. Gradually converged on the number 3.
How many periods are currently in hockey
The current rules of the hockey match include the same three periods. But the problem here is that they are often not enough to determine the winner. And if the third period of the main time of the hockey match ends in a draw, the referees appoint additional time. Otherwise, it is called "overtime." In the regular championship of the Continental Hockey League, according to the regulations, there can be no draw. And if overtime does not reveal the winner, the teams exchange penalty kicks, shootouts. Until the victory of one of the teams. To understand this game, the importance of how long the period in hockey lasts is also significant. Its duration is 20 minutes of "pure" time. This means that when the game stops for some reason, and this happens throughout the period quite often, then at the same time the stopwatch that measures the playing time also stops. A break for rest between periods is 15 minutes.
Play off
But the most interesting thing happens in the final part of the championship, otherwise called the “playoffs”. At this stage, the game escalates and becomes extremely dynamic. Its outcome is often completely unpredictable. There are no shootings at the end of the match here. In the final games, the question becomes irrelevant: "How many periods in hockey?" If three periods of regular time do not reveal a winner, then their number becomes unlimited. The game continues until the first goal wasted. And in some cases, it drags on for a very long time. The longest match in the history of the Continental Hockey League took place between the teams Severstal and Lokomotiv on February 25, 2013. It ended in the 119th minute with a victory, “Severstal” with a score of 3: 2. And we can confidently predict that this record will not last long.