Mastering the Breakaway: How to Finish More and Train the Right Way
- Kevin Geist
- Nov 14, 2025
- 3 min read
A breakaway is every player’s dream—and every goalie’s nightmare. It’s a pure
battle of skill, poise, and confidence. Yet for many players, breakaways feel unpredictable. One day you bury everything, the next day the puck rolls off your blade. The truth is: breakaway success isn’t luck. It’s a trainable skill with clear fundamentals.
Here’s how to consistently score more breakaway goals—and how to train for it the right way.
1. Slow Your Mind, Not Your Feet
The biggest mistake players make is panicking. They either skate too fast and lose control, or they overthink and run out of space.
The key: Stay explosive until you hit the hash marks, then stabilize your speed so you can read the goalie.
Train it:
Start at full speed from the blue line.
At the top of the circles, shift to “controlled speed”—not slow, just balanced.
Keep your chest up so your eyes can scan the goalie’s depth and posture.
2. Read the Goalie’s Body Language
Goalies give you the answer before you shoot it.
Look for:
Glove positioning: High glove? Go low blocker. Lazy glove? Challenge it.
Skate depth: Deep in the crease? Shoot. Challenging aggressively? Look for a deke.
Posture: Upright goalies are beat by lateral moves; crouched goalies are vulnerable high.
Train it: Have goalies rotate through different “looks” (aggressive, deep, square, off-angle) so players learn what each posture means.
3. Make the Goalie Move First
The scorer advantage comes from forcing the goalie to react. You do this by having one believable fake—not three.
Simple rule: One move to set the goalie. One move to score.
Train it:
Work on “threatening” moves at the hash marks: slight shoulder drops, quick hands, puck pulled to shooting position.
Use a metronome rhythm: fake → pull → finish.
Practice being deceptive without losing speed.
4. Have Two Go-To Moves and One Shot
Great breakaway players don’t have 10 moves—they have 2–3 they’ve perfected.
Recommended for most players:
Train it: Spend entire sessions repeating the same three finishes until your rep count is high enough to build real muscle memory.
5. Control Your Hands Under Pressure
On breakaways, hands tighten naturally. The stick blade rises, the puck bounces, and the finish gets messy.
Train it:
Stickhandle a golf ball or weighted puck before reps to force soft hands.
Add mini obstacles or edges before the breakaway to train handling under fatigue.
Focus on blade angle: the quieter the blade, the more control you’ll have on the finish.
6. Use Your Edges to Your Advantage
The best finishers use subtle edgework to change angle and force the goalie to shuffle.
Two must-have tools:
Inside-edge glide at the hash marks to stabilize while reading the goalie.
Outside-edge cut across the crease when deking laterally.
Train it: Do edge-only breakaways without the puck. Add the puck only when your edge pattern feels automatic.
7. Practice Breakaways With Pressure, Not Just Empty Ice
In games, you’re tired, checked, chased, or coming off contact. Empty-net breakaways in practice don’t simulate reality.
Train it:
Start reps from different areas: turnovers, chip passes, neutral-zone sprints.
Add a backchecker who starts a step behind.
Begin drills off a coach bump, corner battle, or small-area transition.
The goal is to train the chaos before training the finish.
8. Finish With Confidence
The last skill—maybe the most important—is belief. Breakaways reward players who commit. Doubt leads to hesitation, and hesitation leads to bad outcomes.
Confidence tips:
Decide your plan early, then react to the goalie if needed.
Don’t slow to a crawl—you’re giving the goalie all the time in the world.
Visualize your finish before you pick up the puck.
Confidence is trained just like hands, edges, or shooting.
Breakaway Training Blueprint (Sample Practice Progression)
Level 1: Fundamentals
10 reps of controlled-speed entries
10 reps of single fake → finish
10 reps of one-shot-only breakaways
Level 2: Read the Goalie
10 reps vs aggressive goalie
10 reps vs deep goalie
10 reps vs off-angle goalie setup
Level 3: Chaos & Pressure
Breakaways with a chaser
Breakaways off a battle
Breakaways off rim or turnover
Level 4: Free Reps (Game Simulation)
Players choose their move
Goalie doesn’t predetermine posture
Track scoring percentages
Final Thoughts
Breakaways aren’t random—they’re a repeatable skill rooted in speed control, goalie reading, deception, and confidence. With structured reps and the right mindset, any player can turn these high-pressure moments into high-success moments.
