Ice Hockey Shots on Goal at the Winter Olympics

With the United States’ women currently dismantling Sweden, ahead 5-0 after two periods, with 51 shots on goal, to only 6 for Sweden, one might wonder what is the most shots on goal in an Olympic ice hockey game.

Officially, this stat has only been kept since 1992 at the Winter Olympics so we don’t have full details. Women have only played ice hockey at the Olympics since 1998 so we do have full details for them. For men we will present the list since 1992 below, but also list the best records for goalie saves – we do have that information prior to 1998 for almost all Olympic ice hockey matches. Note that one of the official bests for men was in a losing effort.

Please note that in 1964 the Soviet Union defeated Germany 10-0, with German goalie Ulli Jansen recording 95 saves. So the USSR had at least 105 shots on goal in that match.

Here are the numbers:

Most Shots on Goal, Game, Team, Women (since 1998)

[table]

SOG,Match

71,United States (2002 vs. China) (12-1)

70,United States (2014 vs. Sweden) (6-1)

70,Canada (2002 vs. Sweden) (11-0)

69,Canada (2014 vs. Switzerland) (5-0)

67,Canada (2010 vs. Slovakia) (18-0)

66,Canada (2002 vs. Kazakhstan) (7-0)

66,Canada (2006 vs. Italy) (16-0)

64,Canada (1998 vs. Japan) (13-0)

62,Canada (2010 vs. Switzerland) (10-1)

61,United States (2010 vs. China) (12-1)

60,Canada (2002 vs. Russia) (7-0)

60,United States (2006 vs. Germany) (5-0)

[/table]

 

Most Shots on Goal, Game, Team, Men (since 1992)

[table]

SOG,Match

55,Unified Team (1992 vs. Norway) (8-1)

55,Unified Team (1992 vs. United States (5-2)

55,Switzerland (2002 vs. Austria) (lost 4-1)

52,Unified Team (1992 vs. Canada) (5-4)

51,Unified Team (1992 vs. France) (8-0)

51,Canada (2002 vs. Belarus) (7-1)

51,Finland (1994 vs. Austria) (6-2)

50,Canada (2006 vs. Italy) (7-2)

50,Finland (2006 vs. Italy) (6-0)

50,Russia (2006 vs. Kazakhstan) (1-0)

50,Czech Republic (2010 vs. Latvia) (3-2)

49,United States (2002 vs. Russia) (3-2)

49,Canada (2006 vs. Finland) (lost 0-4)

[/table]

 

Most Goalie Saves, Game, Individual, Men

[table]

Saves,Match

95,Ulli Jansen (GER-1964 vs. Soviet Union)

88,Gérard Rigolet (SUI-1964 vs. Soviet Union)

87,René Kiener (SUI-1964 vs. Czechoslovakia)

85,Vittorio Bolla (ITA-1964 vs. Romania)

83,Ulli Jansen (GER-1964 vs. Finland)

78,Vittorio Bolla (ITA-1964 vs. Poland)

73,Anton Jože Gale (YUG-1964 vs. Canada)

73,Atanas Iliev (BUL-1976 vs. Czechoslovakia)

71,Sean Burke (CAN-1992 vs. Unified Team)

66,Toshiei Honma (JPN-1960 vs. Canada)

[/table]

And here are the top 10 bests for most total SOG by 2 teams in a women’s match at the Winter Olympics:

[table]

SOG,Match

92 (70-22),Canada d. Sweden (2002)

83 (69-14),Canada d. Switzerland (2014)

82 (53-29),Switzerland d. Italy (2006)

81 (71-10),United States d. China (2002)

79 (70-9),United States d. Sweden (2014)

78 (45-33),Switzerland d. Slovakia (2010)

77 (66-11),Canada d. Kazakhstan (2002)

76 (67-9),Canada d. Slovakia (2010)

74 (62-12),Canada d. Switzerland (2010)

72 (54-18),Canada d. Finland (2002)

72 (41-31),Russia d. China (2002)

72 (60-12),United States d. Germany (2006)

[/table]