Exact Answer: 2 Hours To 3 Hours
A game of hockey can take about 2 hours to as long as 3 hours. There is not a fixed time for how long a game of hockey would take on average. The reason behind that is that the time for how long a game of hockey would take on average depends upon several different factors.
How Long Does A Hockey Game Last?
| Type of hockey game | Time |
| Ice hockey | 2.5 hours to 3 hours |
| College hockey | 2 hours to 2.5 hours |
| Kids’ hockey | 1 hour to 1.5 hours |
Among all the multiple factors, there is one major factor that determines the time for how long a game of hockey would take on average. That major time determining factor is the type of hockey that is being played.
There are several different types of hockey that can be played. Some of the major types of hockey are ice hockey games, ground hockey games, college hockey games, and kid’s hockey games. Depending upon which type of game of hockey is being played, the time for how long a game of hockey would take on average would vary.
The first type of game of hockey is ice hockey, which is also known as NHL hockey. A single game of ice hockey can take about a minimum of 2.5 hours to a maximum of 3 hours on average.
The second type of game of hockey, that is college hockey takes a shorter duration of time as compared to the time for how long a game of ice hockey would take. On average, a game of college hockey takes about a minimum of 2 hours to a maximum of 2.5 hours.
Lastly, the game of kid’s hockey also known as recreational hockey takes the least duration of time as compared to the rest of the 2 different types of hockey. On average a game of kid’s hockey takes about a minimum of 1 hour to a maximum of 1.5 hours.
Why Does A Hockey Game Last That Long?
All the different types of hockey have some or other kind of variation in them which differentiate a particular type of hockey game from the rest of the different types of hockey.
These variations could be regarding anything, such as a change in rules, change in time durations, change in the ground on which hockey can be played, or any other such variations that make the different types of hockey.
Since all the different types of the game of hockey have something different in them, as a result, the time for how long a game of hockey would take on average can also vary. Thus it becomes important to know which type of game of hockey is being played to calculate the time for how long a game of hockey would take on average.
In the case of ice hockey, though the overall time for playing the match takes around 2.5 hours to 3 hours on average, the playing time is just about 1 hour. That is to say, apart from the playing time, which is equal to 60 minutes, the rest of the time includes breaks and intermissions.
The playing time of an ice hockey match is divided into three different periods, that is of 20 minutes each. Every period of 20 minutes is followed by a break interval, which ultimately leads to a total time of about 2.5 hours to 3 hours.
The same is the case for the rest of the types of hockey. That is to say, the actual playtime for playing happy is around 1 hour only in each case, but the period of breaks plays a major role in determining the time for how long a game of hockey would take on average.
Conclusion
Apart from the type of hockey which is being played, some of the other major factors which determine the time how long a game of hockey would take on average could be the number of breaks in the game of hockey, if the game would have any shootouts or not, the time for how long a shootout would last, playoffs in the game and other such factors.