Report: NHL leaning on AHL to further investigate 3-on-3 overtime

The National Hockey League continues to look into the possibility of changing overtime procedures in order to eliminate, or severely cut down, the necessity of games ending in a shootout.

The American Hockey League is conducting an experiment of their own when games move past regulation. They start with a dry scrape and three minutes of 4-on-4 overtime followed by four minutes of 3-on-3, according to TSN's Darren Dreger.

Of the six overtime games in the AHL this season, three were solved with 4-on-4, and the other three with 3-on-3. The shootout has not decided a game yet, which means the new methods are working.

Neither the NHL or AHL are fans of the halt in momentum with the dry scrape, but Dreger notes there's another wrinkle to the proposed changes to overtime:

The long change strategy - where teams switch sides in overtime to encourage defensive mistakes - is generating positive reviews, but the changes at the NHL level aren't collectively having any impact. 

As Dreger noted, the NHL has seen 17 games go to overtime this season and only four were decided in the extra frame.

Although the elimination of the shootout is the goal of 3-on-3 overtime, the NHL will not be voting on this matter at general manager meetings in March unless the AHL continues to experience success with the format.