Play at the Plate

I think it’s a rule that every soccer or hockey movie ever made has to end in a shootout.

The drama of a game’s outcome relying on a single shot is too great for Hollywood to ignore. If you remember anything about The Mighty Ducks, I’m sure it’s the triple deke that Charlie puts on the goalie when he wins the game for the Ducks. Although the formula gets old after awhile, you can’t deny that it’s great drama.

But this isn’t the movies.

This is real life, and to have the outcome of regular-season NHL games and important soccer playoff games determined by a shootout seems foolish.

This year, the NHL decided that instead of ending its games in ties as they previously did, it would end all games that couldn’t be decided in one period of overtime in a shootout. The idea was to make the regular season more exciting, since many of the games before the lockout and consequent rule change ended in ties.

The change has hurt the game.

In a sport like hockey or soccer where not many goals are scored, there are going to be more ties than in a game such as basketball, where many points are scored. Until recently, the NHL let the games end with a knotted score after a set amount of overtime, accepting the inevitability of a draw. But no longer.

The problem I have with shootouts is that they aren’t a measure of who is the better team. A shootout in hockey does not correspond well to the game itself. How often do you see a breakaway in a game situation? Maybe once or twice a game?

Yet this is the way the winner of an evenly matched and tied game is determined – by a series of breakaways. In no way does this show who the superior team is, and to reward a team more than another for a game won in a shootout is silly.

Luckily, college hockey gets it right. Regular-season games end after one overtime period, and only in games where a winner has to be determined (tournaments and playoffs), does the game extend into more overtime frames. Never does it go into a shootout.

And this is the way it should be. Hockey should never end in a shootout. Imagine if a baseball game was decided by a home run derby after two extra innings or a basketball game by a three-point shootout. Not perfect examples, but close enough to make my point.

Unfortunately, although college hockey has got it right, college soccer does not. In games where a winner hasn’t been determined after two 15-minute overtime periods, then the game goes to a shootout.

It just recently happened in the University of Maine vs. Binghamton University women’s soccer game, a 0-0 tie where Maine outshot Binghamton, 25-11, and won the shootout, 3-1.

Now imagine if Binghamton had won this shootout, like they conceivably could have. Would it have been fair if Binghamton advanced just because its players were able to kick the ball in from 12 yards away more than their opponents could, even though they were only able to muster 11 shots on goal in 110 minutes?

Unfortunately, soccer faces more of a challenge than hockey regarding overtime. Because so few goals are scored in the game, it is conceivable for a tie to last almost forever. The players cannot possibly play for much longer than 110 minutes anyway. So what viable solution is there?

Well, the knockout round of the Union of European Football Associations Champions League offers one. Instead of one game, the teams play two – one home and one away. If a winner hasn’t emerged strictly from the results of the two games, then aggregate goals or away goals are used as a tie breaker. If the teams are still tied after this, then and only then do the teams go to a shootout.

This system could be adapted to fit college soccer. Instead of playing a home-away series, the teams would just play a two-game series at the assigned site for the tournament, with the only tiebreaker being aggregate goals.

I know this system couldn’t be used all the time, because it would extend the season too long. But if it were only used in conference championship games and in the NCAA Tournament, it would help to make sure the better team won championships, not just the team that can take the best penalty kicks.