Previous studies have attempted to model goal scoring in sports such as ice hockey as simple Poisson processes. Others (Thomas, 2006) have shown that events within the game of ice hockey are better modelled as a Semi-Markov process determined by puck possession and location. I demonstrate that a...

I create a state space within the game of ice hockey by noting which team has possession, and in what location of the rink the puck is located. This space is used to model the game as a semi-Markov process, as data from a series of games in 2004-2005 NCAA play suggest that the system cannot be...