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In the NHL, or generally in ice hockey and similar sports, there is a statistic of GWG - game winning goals. A goal is a GWG if it is enough for a team to score only until this goal with no more goals in the game and still win the match. For example, if team A wins a match 5:2, their third goal was the GWG. It does not need to be the last goal scored.

Now, I want to ask, what happens if the GWG is an own goal? I know that in the NHL, the concept of own goals does not exist. But maybe in other sports like field hockey or floorball, even football, or in other ice-hockey leagues etc, what would happen then? Is it meaningful to talk about a statistics of GLG - game losing goals? It would be an own goal which is enough for the opposing team to win a match with it.

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Own goals, as a statistic, are rare enough in football that they are not regularly tracked by all competitions, if at all (some do, like the English Premier League).

They are not even possible in field hockey, as the rules require an attacker to play the ball inside the circle for a goal to be scored.

Given their rarity on an absolute scale, and the number of matches in which they would matter to the result, tracking a game-losing own goal ("GLOG") statistic does not make much sense.

From a player analysis perspective, it doesn't make sense to worry about whether an own goal was the GLOG, since the player scoring enough OGs to have significant GLOGs is not a good enough player to be at the level where such tracking would occur.

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  • I agree, but it would be definitely an interesting curious statistic for fans, if an GLG occurs :D
    – Rikib1999
    Commented Aug 19, 2020 at 8:47

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