What is Game-Winning Goals?

The goal that puts a team ahead for good in a game they end up winning.

What this tells us

When a player scores the game-winning goal, he's the one who gave his team the lead they never lost. It's a concrete way to credit someone for a clutch moment—the goal that actually decided the game. Higher is better because it means the player has a habit of scoring when it matters most.

Limitations

Game-winning goals reward the final goal of a winning game, but they ignore context: a GWG in overtime is treated the same as one scored 5–1 in the third period of a blowout. They also don't account for when the goal was scored relative to the quality of play—a lucky rebound in minute 59 counts the same as a snipe in a tied game. For a fuller picture of clutch performance, pair this with goals scored in close games (one-goal or tied situations).

Example

A consistent 20-goal scorer might record 3–4 game-winning goals in a season. A player with 8–10 GWG is someone his team leans on to finish close games.