power play

Definition of power play

1 : a military, diplomatic, political, or administrative maneuver in which power is brought to bear

2a : a concentrated attack in football in which the ballcarrier is preceded by a mass of blockers

b : a situation in ice hockey in which one team temporarily has more players on the ice than the other team because of a penalty

Examples of power play in a Sentence

They scored their first goal on a power play. He made a power play to seize control of the company.

Recent Examples on the Web The Blues' Jaden Schwartz and Colton Parayko gave St. Louis a one-goal lead after two periods, but Keller found Garland on the power play for the equalizer in the third period. — Richard Morin, azcentral, "Coyotes top Blues in shootout to post historic back-to-back wins," 12 Nov. 2019 Pittsburgh is 21st in the NHL with a 17.6% success rate on the power play. — Chris Wassel, USA TODAY Sportsbook Wire, "Flyers-Penguins odds: Pittsburgh has edge at home," 29 Oct. 2019 On the power play, the Kings had been mired in an 0-for-19 slump before Ilya Kovalchuk buried a one-timer in the second period Saturday. — Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, "Kings finally put it all together in victory over Flames," 19 Oct. 2019 The final goal, from Hunt on the power play, came on a nice pass from senior Makoto Kenney. — Matt Szabo, Daily Pilot, "Newport Harbor boys’ water polo upends top-ranked Studio City Harvard-Westlake," 12 Oct. 2019 Maybe just find some consistency on the power play. — The Si Staff, SI.com, "One Question for Every NHL Team for the 2019–20 Season," 1 Oct. 2019 Couture, 30, will be given even more responsibility in the absence of Pavelski, specifically on the power play. — Brian Ricks, The Mercury News, "San Jose Sharks 2019-2020 season preview: Stepping forward without Capt. Joe Pavelski," 20 Sep. 2019 Washington’s power play is 4 for 12 in the series, and 21 for 71 (29.6 percent) in the post-season – the third-highest rate in NHL history among playoff teams who have played at least 15 games. — Sam Carchidi, Philly.com, "Caps on verge of ending long Stanley Cup drought; Vegas coach says pressure is off," 6 June 2018 Number of consecutive penalties killed by the Panthers after killing all four Boston power plays on Thursday night. — Matthew Defranks, Sun-Sentinel.com, "The Next Day Look: Florida Panthers 3, Boston Bruins 0," 16 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'power play.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near power play

power-political

power politician

Statistics for power play

Last Updated

25 Nov 2019

Cite this Entry

“Power play.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/power%20play. Accessed 8 December 2019.

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