{{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot)
A scoring chance, in
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
is an attempt or chance for a team or holder of the
puck to score a
goal
A goal or objective is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan, and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A goal is roughly similar to ...
.
While there is no exact definition of a scoring chance, the
Elias Sports Bureau
The Elias Sports Bureau is an American privately-held sports data company providing historical and current statistical information for the major professional sports leagues operating in the U.S. and Canada.
Founded in 1913, Elias is considere ...
, who is the official statistics recorder of the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
and many other professional sports leagues, clarifies a scoring chance as an attempt or shot taken from a "
home-plate shaped area" that goes from the top of the faceoff circles, through the
faceoff
A face-off is the method used to begin and restart play after goals in some sports using sticks, primarily ice hockey, bandy, floorball, broomball, rinkball, and lacrosse.
During a face-off, two teams line up in opposition to each other, and the ...
dots, then angled to the goal posts. Another possible definition of a scoring chance can be any shot that is taken by an attacking team on an
odd man rush, such as a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 break.
A reason many
box scores and stat sheets list the number of scoring chances is to differentiate between
shots that are relatively easy
saves for the
goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...
(shots that are not scoring chances) and shots that are not easy saves (shots that are also scoring chances).
Ice hockey terminology