How Many Games In an NHL Series?
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An NHL series is typically best of seven games. However, if a team sweeps their opponents, the series ends after four games.
How Many Games In an NHL Series?
In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, each best-of-seven series is played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format. That means the team with home ice advantage will host games one, two, five and seven.* If necessary, games six and seven are played on the road. The higher-seeded team will have home ice advantage.
How Many Games In an NHL Conference Final?
In the Conference Finals, the format changes slightly. Instead of best-of-5, the Conference Finals are best-of-7 series. This means that the team must win four games in order to advance to the next round.
How Many Games In an NHL Stanley Cup Final?
The Stanley Cup Final is the championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Eastern Conference champion plays the Western Conference champion in a best-of-seven game series. The Stanley Cup, named after Lord Stanley of Preston, is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America. It was first presented in 1893 to recognize the Canadian amateur champion and became the championship trophy of the NHL in 1926.
The best-of-seven format was adopted by the NHL in 1939. The Stanley Cup Final has been played using this format ever since, with a few exceptions: from 1947 to 1949, and from 1965 to 1967, the Final was a best-of-five series; in 1950 and 1951, it was a best-of-nine series. Starting in 2019, the Final will be contested between the winners of the Eastern Conference and Western Conference Finals (which are also best-of-seven series).
In 1982, a modified version of overtime was introduced for regular season games only. In this format, each team would still play five minutes of overtime periods if no goal was scored during regulation time; however, only one overtime period would be played (instead of two or three), and if no goal was scored during that period then the game would end as a tie (instead of going to a shootout). This change was made to reduce wear and tear on players during what was already a long season.
The number of games needed to win the Stanley Cup has varied throughout its history. In certain years (such as 1947, 1949, 1950, 1963, 1965, 1966), as few as four games were needed to determine a winner; while in others (such as 1948, 1951, 1952, 1954) as many as eight were required. In recent years (since 1984), each series has been decided in no more than seven games.
