The NHL.com website has number of goals by period per team.
- Navigate to NHL.com -> Statistics -> Teams.
- Then, select a season and for "Report," select "Goals by Period."
In which part of ice hockey game most goals are scored?
For the 2016-2017 NHL regular season, here is the breakdown:
- Period 1: 1901 (.773 goals per game during this period)
- Period 2: 2323 (.944)
- Period 3: 2290 (.931)
For the 2015-2016 NHL regular season:
- Period 1: 1787 (.726)
- Period 2: 2255 (.917)
- Period 3: 2355 (.957)
For the 2014-2015 NHL regular season:
- Period 1: 1874 (.762)
- Period 2: 2249 (.914)
- Period 3: 2290 (.931)
For the 2013-2014 NHL regular season:
- Period 1: 1897 (.769)
- Period 2: 2245 (.913)
- Period 3: 2317 (.942)
For the 2012-2013 NHL regular season (lockout-shortened to 48 games):
- Period 1: 1125 (.781)
- Period 2: 1332 (.925)
- Period 3: 1300 (.903)
For the 2011-2012 NHL regular season:
- Period 1: 1924 (.782)
- Period 2: 2254 (.916)
- Period 3: 2248 (.914)
Thus, with this four season season sample size:
- The second and third periods are very close. Perhaps a deeper statistical plotting of said data will reveal more.
- Note: The second period is amazingly consistent with a range of 10 goals between the 2011-2012 and 2015-2016 NHL regular seasons*!
- The first period is clearly the time frame in which the least goals are scored.
- Taking the average goals per game during each period
(total goals / (# of games * # of teams))
, it is more evident how close second period and third period goal scoring is.
* - excluding the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 NHL regular season