Top 100 Players Since 1979/80 for 3rd Period/OT Game-Tying or Go-Ahead Goals in Playoffs

[Trap Jesus]

Source was Hockey References' game finder, I went through and added up totals for players that either tied the game up in the 3rd period, or scored go-ahead goals in either the 3rd period or Overtime. Active players are in bold/capitalized.

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Brett Hull	20
2	Joe Sakic	19
3	Jaromir Jagr	18
4	Claude Lemieux	17
T-5	Bobby Smith	15
T-5	Glenn Anderson	15
7	Dale Hunter	13
T-8	Daniel Briere	12
T-8	Esa Tikkanen	12
T-8	Jeremy Roenick	12
T-8	Mike Modano	12
T-8	PATRICK KANE	12
T-13	Cam Neely	11
T-13	JOE PAVELSKI	11
T-13	Luc Robitaille	11
T-13	NICKLAS BACKSTROM	11
T-13	PATRICE BERGERON	11
T-13	Steve Thomas	11
T-13	Vincent Damphousse	11
T-20	ALEX OVECHKIN	10
T-20	Chris Drury	10
T-20	COREY PERRY	10
T-20	Doug Gilmour	10
T-20	MARIAN GABORIK	10
T-20	Mark Messier	10
T-20	PATRICK MARLEAU	10
T-20	Russ Courtnall	10
T-20	Wayne Gretzky	10
T-29	Brian Propp	9
T-29	Dave Andreychuk	9
T-29	Jamie Langenbrunner	9
T-29	Jari Kurri	9
T-29	Joe Murphy	9
T-29	JONATHAN TOEWS	9
T-29	Martin St. Louis	9
T-29	Mats Naslund	9
T-29	Rod Brind'Amour	9
T-29	Sergei Fedorov	9
T-29	Stephane Richer	9
T-29	Stu Barnes	9
T-41	Alex Kovalev	8
T-41	Brian Bellows	8
T-41	Guy Carbonneau	8
T-41	John LeClair	8
T-41	LOGAN COUTURE	8
T-41	Mark Recchi	8
T-41	Mats Sundin	8
T-41	Petr Sykora	8
T-41	Rick Tocchet	8
T-41	Steve Payne	8
T-41	Teemu Selanne	8
T-41	ZACH PARISE	8
T-53	BOBBY RYAN	7
T-53	Brendan Shanahan	7
T-53	Bryan Trottier	7
T-53	Dino Ciccarelli	7
T-53	EVGENI MALKIN	7
T-53	Henrik Zetterberg	7
T-53	Joe Mullen	7
T-53	Joel Ward	7
T-53	JUSTIN WILLIAMS	7
T-53	Kirk Muller	7
T-53	Martin Havlat	7
T-53	Matt Cooke	7
T-53	NICK BONINO	7
T-53	Ron Francis	7
T-53	Scott Gomez	7
T-53	Scott Niedermayer	7
T-53	Trevor Linden	7
T-53	Vyacheslav Kozlov	7
T-53	Wendel Clark	7
T-72	Al MacInnis	6
T-72	Bernie Federko	6
T-72	Brad Richards	6
T-72	BRANDON DUBINSKY	6
T-72	BRENT SEABROOK	6
T-72	Daniel Alfredsson	6
T-72	Dave Babych	6
T-72	Dave Poulin	6
T-72	FILIP FORSBERG	6
T-72	JADEN SCHWARTZ	6
T-72	JAKE GUENTZEL	6
T-72	Jere Lehtinen	6
T-72	John Tonelli	6
T-72	JORDAN STAAL	6
T-72	Ken Linseman	6
T-72	Kevin Stevens	6
T-72	Kris Draper	6
T-72	Mike Gartner	6
T-72	MILAN LUCIC	6
T-72	Nicklas Lidstrom	6
T-72	Paul Coffey	6
T-72	Pavel Datsyuk	6
T-72	Peter Stastny	6
T-72	Ray Bourque	6
T-72	RYAN KESLER	6
T-72	SIDNEY CROSBY	6
T-72	Simon Gagne	6
T-72	Steve Larmer	6
T-72	Steve Yzerman	6
T-72	TOMAS HERTL	6
T-72	TYLER JOHNSON	6

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

*JOE NIEWENDYK ALSO HAD 8.


I think this works fairly well as a gauge for when certain players are called "clutch". A lot of names pop up that you'd expect.

Click to read more...

 

[Czech Your Math]

Interesting results. Thank you for your contribution.

How clutch of a playoff performer can one be considered, when one trails players such as Joel Ward, Nick Bonino, Matt Cooke & Scott Gomez in this statistic?

 

[Trap Jesus]

Interesting results. Thank you for your contribution.

How clutch of a playoff performer can one be considered, when one trails players such as Joel Ward, Nick Bonino, Matt Cooke & Scott Gomez in this statistic?

I'll always associate Ward with being clutch. I also always think of Gomez as a playoff performer from those Elias-Gomez-Gionta Devils days. I always think of Talbot as that kind of guy from the Pens who wasn't the best player but would step up at big times, but realistically that's just because of Game 7 in 2009.

 

[txpd]

Geez, Dale Hunter.

 

[Trap Jesus]

I added in assist numbers for the current guys on the list:

Player	Goals	Primary Assists	Secondary Assists	Total Assists	Primary Points	Total Points
ALEX OVECHKIN	10	11	6	17	21	27
NICKLAS BACKSTROM	11	11	4	15	22	26
EVGENI MALKIN	7	11	8	19	18	26
PATRICK KANE	12	7	6	13	19	25
JONATHAN TOEWS	9	9	3	12	18	21
SIDNEY CROSBY	6	8	7	15	14	21
BRENT SEABROOK	6	7	7	14	13	20
JOE PAVELSKI	11	5	3	8	16	19
PATRICE BERGERON	11	5	3	8	16	19
COREY PERRY	10	7	1	8	17	18
JUSTIN WILLIAMS	7	8	3	11	15	18
PATRICK MARLEAU	10	6	1	7	16	17
LOGAN COUTURE	8	5	3	8	13	16
ZACH PARISE	8	4	3	7	12	15
MARIAN GABORIK	10	3	1	4	13	14
RYAN KESLER	6	5	3	8	11	14
TYLER JOHNSON	6	6	1	7	12	13
JADEN SCHWARTZ	6	2	3	5	8	11
JORDAN STAAL	6	2	2	4	8	10
MILAN LUCIC	6	4	0	4	10	10
BOBBY RYAN	7	1	0	1	8	8
BRANDON DUBINSKY	6	0	2	2	6	8
FILIP FORSBERG	6	1	1	2	7	8
TOMAS HERTL	6	1	1	2	7	8
NICK BONINO	7	0	0	0	7	7
JAKE GUENTZEL	6	1	0	1	7	7

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Hockey Outsider]

No Joe Nieuwendyk?

1. April 25, 1999 - go-ahead goal (ultimately, the GWG) at 12:32 of the 3rd period
2. April 27, 1999 - triple OT series-winning goal
3. May 8, 1999 - OT winner
4. May 24, 1999 - go-ahead go (ultimately, the GWG) at 11:52 of the 3rd period
5. June 12, 1999 - go-ahead go (ultimately, the GWG) at 9:35 of the 3rd period
6. May 23, 2000 - OT winner
7. April 21, 2001 - go-ahead go (ultimately, the GWG) at 17:07 of the 3rd period
8. May 21, 2003 - tied the game at 2:41 of this period (no other goals scored in regular, lost in OT)

EDIT - surprised to see Mario Lemieux isn't on the list at all.

 

[Trap Jesus]

No Joe Nieuwendyk?

1. April 25, 1999 - go-ahead goal (ultimately, the GWG) at 12:32 of the 3rd period
2. April 27, 1999 - triple OT series-winning goal
3. May 8, 1999 - OT winner
4. May 24, 1999 - go-ahead go (ultimately, the GWG) at 11:52 of the 3rd period
5. June 12, 1999 - go-ahead go (ultimately, the GWG) at 9:35 of the 3rd period
6. May 23, 2000 - OT winner
7. April 21, 2001 - go-ahead go (ultimately, the GWG) at 17:07 of the 3rd period
8. May 21, 2003 - tied the game at 2:41 of this period (no other goals scored in regular, lost in OT)

EDIT - surprised to see Mario Lemieux isn't on the list at all.

Good catch. The way I did it was copy and paste all the multi-goal scorers from go ahead and all the multi-goal scorers from tying goals, then scroll down and look up individually if a guy was only in one category, which Niewendyk was. Ciccarelli was like that with 6+1. Must have missed him, he does indeed have 8.

Lemieux had 5.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Good catch. The way I did it was copy and paste all the multi-goal scorers from go ahead and all the multi-goal scorers from tying goals, then scroll down and look up individually if a guy was only in one category, which Niewendyk was. Ciccarelli was like that with 6+1. Must have missed him, he does indeed have 8.

Lemieux had 5.

Agreed - Lemieux had 5. I meant I was surprised he didn't have more. But after taking a look, it appears most of his "game winning goals" were in the 1st/2nd periods.

 

[SCampo98]

What an oddly specific but relevant stat, I like it.

 

[BertMcDrai]

Source was Hockey References' game finder, I went through and added up totals for players that either tied the game up in the 3rd period, or scored go-ahead goals in either the 3rd period or Overtime. Active players are in bold/capitalized.

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Brett Hull	20
2	Joe Sakic	19
3	Jaromir Jagr	18
4	Claude Lemieux	17
T-5	Bobby Smith	15
T-5	Glenn Anderson	15
7	Dale Hunter	13
T-8	Daniel Briere	12
T-8	Esa Tikkanen	12
T-8	Jeremy Roenick	12
T-8	Mike Modano	12
T-8	PATRICK KANE	12
T-13	Cam Neely	11
T-13	JOE PAVELSKI	11
T-13	Luc Robitaille	11
T-13	NICKLAS BACKSTROM	11
T-13	PATRICE BERGERON	11
T-13	Steve Thomas	11
T-13	Vincent Damphousse	11
T-20	ALEX OVECHKIN	10
T-20	Chris Drury	10
T-20	COREY PERRY	10
T-20	Doug Gilmour	10
T-20	MARIAN GABORIK	10
T-20	Mark Messier	10
T-20	PATRICK MARLEAU	10
T-20	Russ Courtnall	10
T-20	Wayne Gretzky	10
T-29	Brian Propp	9
T-29	Dave Andreychuk	9
T-29	Jamie Langenbrunner	9
T-29	Jari Kurri	9
T-29	Joe Murphy	9
T-29	JONATHAN TOEWS	9
T-29	Martin St. Louis	9
T-29	Mats Naslund	9
T-29	Rod Brind'Amour	9
T-29	Sergei Fedorov	9
T-29	Stephane Richer	9
T-29	Stu Barnes	9
T-41	Alex Kovalev	8
T-41	Brian Bellows	8
T-41	Guy Carbonneau	8
T-41	John LeClair	8
T-41	LOGAN COUTURE	8
T-41	Mark Recchi	8
T-41	Mats Sundin	8
T-41	Petr Sykora	8
T-41	Rick Tocchet	8
T-41	Steve Payne	8
T-41	Teemu Selanne	8
T-41	ZACH PARISE	8
T-53	BOBBY RYAN	7
T-53	Brendan Shanahan	7
T-53	Bryan Trottier	7
T-53	Dino Ciccarelli	7
T-53	EVGENI MALKIN	7
T-53	Henrik Zetterberg	7
T-53	Joe Mullen	7
T-53	Joel Ward	7
T-53	JUSTIN WILLIAMS	7
T-53	Kirk Muller	7
T-53	Martin Havlat	7
T-53	Matt Cooke	7
T-53	NICK BONINO	7
T-53	Ron Francis	7
T-53	Scott Gomez	7
T-53	Scott Niedermayer	7
T-53	Trevor Linden	7
T-53	Vyacheslav Kozlov	7
T-53	Wendel Clark	7
T-72	Al MacInnis	6
T-72	Bernie Federko	6
T-72	Brad Richards	6
T-72	BRANDON DUBINSKY	6
T-72	BRENT SEABROOK	6
T-72	Daniel Alfredsson	6
T-72	Dave Babych	6
T-72	Dave Poulin	6
T-72	FILIP FORSBERG	6
T-72	JADEN SCHWARTZ	6
T-72	JAKE GUENTZEL	6
T-72	Jere Lehtinen	6
T-72	John Tonelli	6
T-72	JORDAN STAAL	6
T-72	Ken Linseman	6
T-72	Kevin Stevens	6
T-72	Kris Draper	6
T-72	Mike Gartner	6
T-72	MILAN LUCIC	6
T-72	Nicklas Lidstrom	6
T-72	Paul Coffey	6
T-72	Pavel Datsyuk	6
T-72	Peter Stastny	6
T-72	Ray Bourque	6
T-72	RYAN KESLER	6
T-72	SIDNEY CROSBY	6
T-72	Simon Gagne	6
T-72	Steve Larmer	6
T-72	Steve Yzerman	6
T-72	TOMAS HERTL	6
T-72	TYLER JOHNSON	6

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

*JOE NIEWENDYK ALSO HAD 8.


I think this works fairly well as a gauge for when certain players are called "clutch". A lot of names pop up that you'd expect.

Where is Draisaitl? He has lots of OT winners...

 

[Czech Your Math]

Same stat, but points:

Jaromir Jagr	39
Brett Hull	38
Mark Messier	37
Wayne Gretzky	36
Joe Sakic	34
Doug Gilmour	32
Mike Modano	31
Claude Lemieux	28

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[bobholly39]

Really cool to see Jagr so high on the list. I think that should count for those who try and dismiss his playoffs a bit too quickly. No he didn't have any real 'conn smythe worthy runs' during his prime, but he still always produced consistently. And apparently - contributed many timely goals and assist too

 

[K Fleur]

Gaborik is still an active player? Learn something new everyday.

 

[Treb]

Gaborik is still an active player? Learn something new everyday.

Gaborik is still under contract until July 2021, but hasn't played since 2017-2018.

Same thing with Dubinsky who hasn't played since 2018-2019.

 

[DitchMarner]

I'm not sure I understand the premise.

Doesn't Jagr have at least 15 or 16 OT goals in his career? Doesn't Ovechkin have at least 15?

Are only five-on-five goals counted here?

 

[Trap Jesus]

I'm not sure I understand the premise.

Doesn't Jagr have at least 15 or 16 OT goals in his career? Doesn't Ovechkin have at least 15?

Are only five-on-five goals counted here?

Playoffs, not regular season.

 

[DitchMarner]

Playoffs, not regular season.

 

[wetcoast]

Geez, Dale Hunter.

Dale Hunter was a playoff warrior.

 

[wetcoast]

Agreed - Lemieux had 5. I meant I was surprised he didn't have more. But after taking a look, it appears most of his "game winning goals" were in the 1st/2nd periods.

This is why I always take the GWG stat with a grain of salt.

 

[HookKing]

So players that played in the most playoff games will likely look best? Stats should be on a per game basis to have any comparative meaning.

 

[majormajor]

I'd love to see a per game stat, or a regular season version. Plenty of clutch players that didn't get to play on perennial powerhouses.

 

[Gurglesons]

Brett Hull is better than Wayne Gretzky in the playoffs then?

Also confused where noted “clutch” forward Peter Forsberg is..?

 

[Gurglesons]

Agreed - Lemieux had 5. I meant I was surprised he didn't have more. But after taking a look, it appears most of his "game winning goals" were in the 1st/2nd periods.

Maybe this proves this distinction of clutch isn’t a very good one, I dunno.

 

[jetsforever]

Brett Hull is great, no surprises there

I think it might be handy to include games played or something like that
(e.g. maybe this favours people on worse teams because they're more likely to be down in the third or go to OT)

 

[HockeySniper]

Interesting to see the current guys and seeing Ovi at number one wasn’t expecting that