Wiktionary
vb. (context idiomatic sports English) To score the first goal or point in a competition
Usage examples of "break the deadlock".
Now Nicholas used the heart-kite to break the deadlock and Saigo, stung and surprised, swung outwards, landing a blow on the side of Nicholas's head.
John Keene, as a disinterested third party recommended through national command, was a possible way to break the deadlock.
The fourth wasn't sure, but even she was willing to listen to anything that would break the deadlock.
Churchill, the British lord of the admiralty, tried to break the deadlock by launching an attack on Turkey from the Dardanelles, to open a new supply route to Russia.
He was extremely powerful, and he used his brute strength to break the deadlock, moving immediately into a series of horizontal thrusts, slashing and cutting.
Perhaps here was the key to break the deadlock, the key to the throne of the Wyrmberg.
And they would run past their objective, and go on running, until somebody did something, somehow, to break the deadlock.
If you can't break the deadlock at the Armory, I'll have to set the scuttling charges.
What I'm thinking is: We need to break the deadlock in the Clan's thinking wide open.