Penalty shot redirects here. You may be looking for Penalty shot (ice hockey).
A penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches which would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to penalty shots, with a single player taking one shot on goal from a specified spot, the only defender being the goalkeeper. Teams take turns, the winner being the one with the most number of successful goals after a specified number of attempts. If the result is still tied, the shootout usually continues on a "goal-for-goal" basis, with the teams taking shots alternately, the winner being the one to score a goal that is unmatched by the other team. This may continue until every player has taken a shot. If there is still no result the match may be declared a draw, or the winner may be declared by a random method such as flipping a coin.

Rationale
A penalty shootout is usually used only in situations where a winner is needed (for example, a round where one team must be eliminated) and other methods such as extra time and sudden death have failed to determine a winner. It avoids the delays involved in staging a replayed match in order to produce a result. A common complaint of penalty shootouts is that they do not fairly determine the better team in overall play, but only the better team in the one, rather narrow, discipline of taking penalty shots.