Finland’s Joonas Korpisalo, who played at the 2017 Worlds, set a new NHL record with 85 saves as his Columbus Blue Jackets fell 3-2 to Tampa Bay in quintuple overtime on Monday.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
Exhausting, exhilarating, extra-special. The opening game of the first round of the 2020 NHL playoffs was definitely all those things – and arguably the greatest hockey game ever played in front of no fans.
Brayden Point’s rising wrist shot at 10:27 of the fifth overtime gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets in the fourth-longest game in NHL history.
Brayden Point’s rising wrist shot at 10:27 of the fifth overtime gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets in the fourth-longest game in NHL history.
It was a strange goal with lots of Russian flavour. Nikita Kucherov, the 2019 NHL scoring champion, hit Columbus’s Vladislav Gavrikov with a shot and the puck bounced to Point. Defenceman Mikhail Sergachyov got the second assist.
Point, a fourth-year NHL centre and 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship silver medalist, was almost too tired to jump up and down after finally solving Joonas Korpisalo. Unflappable and well-positioned, the 26-year-old Finnish goalie dazzled with an NHL record of 85 saves, the most recorded since 1955/56. Korpisalo also had two shutouts against Toronto in the Stanley Cup qualifiers.
“You just try to go save by save, not thinking too much and grinding through it,” said Korpisalo. “I think I felt pretty good throughout. The boys were battling hard in front of me.”
Kelly Hrudey held the previous record for 33 years. In 1987, the New York Islanders starter posted 73 saves in a 3-2 quadruple overtime win in Game Seven of the first round against the Washington Capitals.
Andrei Vasilevski also overachieved here with 61 stops, as the Lightning earned their first playoff win ever over the Jackets after shockingly getting swept in last year’s first round.
“Unreal performance by both teams, but especially the goalkeepers,” said Tampa’s Victor Hedman, who played despite an apparent ankle injury against Philadelphia and was fortunate not to get penalized for hauling down Cam Atkinson in the fifth overtime. “You can’t put yourself in their position. They’ve got to be focused all the time and they don’t get to sit on the bench for a couple of minutes. Very impressed with the way they played.”
The virtuoso goaltending clinic also sparked some funny tweets from the likes of Elvis Merzlikins, Korpisalo’s fellow Columbus netminder, and retired Swedish goalie Eddie Lack, who played 141 NHL games with four clubs.
Point, a fourth-year NHL centre and 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship silver medalist, was almost too tired to jump up and down after finally solving Joonas Korpisalo. Unflappable and well-positioned, the 26-year-old Finnish goalie dazzled with an NHL record of 85 saves, the most recorded since 1955/56. Korpisalo also had two shutouts against Toronto in the Stanley Cup qualifiers.
“You just try to go save by save, not thinking too much and grinding through it,” said Korpisalo. “I think I felt pretty good throughout. The boys were battling hard in front of me.”
Kelly Hrudey held the previous record for 33 years. In 1987, the New York Islanders starter posted 73 saves in a 3-2 quadruple overtime win in Game Seven of the first round against the Washington Capitals.
Andrei Vasilevski also overachieved here with 61 stops, as the Lightning earned their first playoff win ever over the Jackets after shockingly getting swept in last year’s first round.
“Unreal performance by both teams, but especially the goalkeepers,” said Tampa’s Victor Hedman, who played despite an apparent ankle injury against Philadelphia and was fortunate not to get penalized for hauling down Cam Atkinson in the fifth overtime. “You can’t put yourself in their position. They’ve got to be focused all the time and they don’t get to sit on the bench for a couple of minutes. Very impressed with the way they played.”
The virtuoso goaltending clinic also sparked some funny tweets from the likes of Elvis Merzlikins, Korpisalo’s fellow Columbus netminder, and retired Swedish goalie Eddie Lack, who played 141 NHL games with four clubs.
Korpisalo has come a long way. The former Jokerit and Ilves goalie struggled and went home emptyhanded as Finland’s starter at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship (3.36 GAA, 85.8 save percentage) and 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (3.82 GAA, 85.8 save percentage).
This Eastern Conference showdown at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena started at 15:09 Eastern time and ended at 21:22, lasting six hours and 13 minutes. By way of comparison, back on 9 February, Alitalia set a new flight speed record from New York to Rome in six hours and 38 minutes.
The marathon outing didn’t faze Columbus defenceman Seth Jones. He put new meaning into the old cliche about playing a “full 60 minutes.” The 25-year-old American set a new NHL single-game ice time record of 65:06 for a skater, topping Hockey Hall of Famer Sergei Zubov’s 2003 mark of 63:51 with the Dallas Stars. (Unlike Jones, Zubov, then 32, was also a heavy smoker.) Of note, the NHL only started tracking ice time in 1997-98.
“He’s a horse,” Jackets coach John Tortorella said of Jones, whose resume includes a 2013 World Junior gold medal, Best Defenceman honours at the 2014 Worlds, and bronze at the 2015 Worlds. “He could keep on playing if we were still going. He’s just relentless as far as how he plays.”
“I feel fine,” Jones said. “A lot of minutes, obviously, but I thought I stayed with it and tried to stay hydrated through the whole thing. Obviously your legs get tired.”
Interestingly, this game ended almost as late as the latest start in “NHL Olympic” history. In 2002 in Salt Lake City, the host Americans earned an epic 2-2 tie with Russia, which started at 21:30.
With Tampa outshooting Columbus 88-63, the combined 151 shots on goal surpassed the Olympic shots on goal record from the 1964 Olympics. In Innsbruck, Finland outshot Germany 84-55 on 8 February for a combined total of 139 shots.
Fueled by tons of water, Gatorade, power bars, and bananas, the Bolts and Jackets put on a superhuman display, showing less rust and more freshness after the long pandemic pause. It was a surreal testament to the modern player’s physical and mental conditioning
However, the way this game played out over 150:27 is sure to spark debates. And not just about whether, say, Korpisalo’s performance was better than Dominik Hasek’s 70-save shutout when the Buffalo Sabres edged the New Jersey Devils 1-0 in quadruple overtime in 1994.
For the NHL, it’s both a dream and a nightmare to hit quintuple overtime in the hub city bubble. The spectacle speaks for itself. However, the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins were supposed to face off at 20:00 Eastern time, and the NHL ultimately had to move their Game One clash to 11:00 on Tuesday in Toronto.
Beyond that scheduling headache, imagine for a moment if the Chicago Blackhawks and Vegas Golden Knights, instead of Tampa and Columbus, had played into the fifth overtime. That Western Conference game started at 22:30 Eastern (20:30 in Edmonton), and would have ended close to 05:00 Eastern, making it tough on TV viewers in that time zone.
The IIHF adopted unlimited sudden-death overtime exclusively for IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship gold medal games as of 2019. However, the format is 3-on-3, like the NHL regular season, significantly reducing the likelihood of a marathon. So there will be discussions about whether the NHL would be well-advised to use 3-on-3 in the playoffs as well.
No IIHF elimination games have run longer than Sweden’s consecutive gold-medal shootout victories over Canada (2-1) in 2017 and Switzerland (3-2) in 2018. Those both featured 20 minutes of overtime. Peter Forsberg’s famous one-handed shootout winner when Tre Kronor beat Canada 3-2 at the 1994 Olympics came after 10 minutes of overtime. That was a 14-shot shootout, only equalled in length when Pavol Demitra lifted Slovakia to a 2-1 win over Russia at the 2010 Olympics.
The longest game in NHL history saw Modere “Mud” Bruneteau of the Detroit Red Wings scoring the 1-0 winner in sextuple overtime against the Montreal Maroons in Game One of the 1936 Stanley Cup final. It lasted 176:30. That game also saw Normie Smith make 90 saves during a time saves were not consistently registered – arguably the NHL’s all-time record.
This Eastern Conference showdown at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena started at 15:09 Eastern time and ended at 21:22, lasting six hours and 13 minutes. By way of comparison, back on 9 February, Alitalia set a new flight speed record from New York to Rome in six hours and 38 minutes.
The marathon outing didn’t faze Columbus defenceman Seth Jones. He put new meaning into the old cliche about playing a “full 60 minutes.” The 25-year-old American set a new NHL single-game ice time record of 65:06 for a skater, topping Hockey Hall of Famer Sergei Zubov’s 2003 mark of 63:51 with the Dallas Stars. (Unlike Jones, Zubov, then 32, was also a heavy smoker.) Of note, the NHL only started tracking ice time in 1997-98.
“He’s a horse,” Jackets coach John Tortorella said of Jones, whose resume includes a 2013 World Junior gold medal, Best Defenceman honours at the 2014 Worlds, and bronze at the 2015 Worlds. “He could keep on playing if we were still going. He’s just relentless as far as how he plays.”
“I feel fine,” Jones said. “A lot of minutes, obviously, but I thought I stayed with it and tried to stay hydrated through the whole thing. Obviously your legs get tired.”
Interestingly, this game ended almost as late as the latest start in “NHL Olympic” history. In 2002 in Salt Lake City, the host Americans earned an epic 2-2 tie with Russia, which started at 21:30.
With Tampa outshooting Columbus 88-63, the combined 151 shots on goal surpassed the Olympic shots on goal record from the 1964 Olympics. In Innsbruck, Finland outshot Germany 84-55 on 8 February for a combined total of 139 shots.
Fueled by tons of water, Gatorade, power bars, and bananas, the Bolts and Jackets put on a superhuman display, showing less rust and more freshness after the long pandemic pause. It was a surreal testament to the modern player’s physical and mental conditioning
However, the way this game played out over 150:27 is sure to spark debates. And not just about whether, say, Korpisalo’s performance was better than Dominik Hasek’s 70-save shutout when the Buffalo Sabres edged the New Jersey Devils 1-0 in quadruple overtime in 1994.
For the NHL, it’s both a dream and a nightmare to hit quintuple overtime in the hub city bubble. The spectacle speaks for itself. However, the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins were supposed to face off at 20:00 Eastern time, and the NHL ultimately had to move their Game One clash to 11:00 on Tuesday in Toronto.
Beyond that scheduling headache, imagine for a moment if the Chicago Blackhawks and Vegas Golden Knights, instead of Tampa and Columbus, had played into the fifth overtime. That Western Conference game started at 22:30 Eastern (20:30 in Edmonton), and would have ended close to 05:00 Eastern, making it tough on TV viewers in that time zone.
The IIHF adopted unlimited sudden-death overtime exclusively for IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship gold medal games as of 2019. However, the format is 3-on-3, like the NHL regular season, significantly reducing the likelihood of a marathon. So there will be discussions about whether the NHL would be well-advised to use 3-on-3 in the playoffs as well.
No IIHF elimination games have run longer than Sweden’s consecutive gold-medal shootout victories over Canada (2-1) in 2017 and Switzerland (3-2) in 2018. Those both featured 20 minutes of overtime. Peter Forsberg’s famous one-handed shootout winner when Tre Kronor beat Canada 3-2 at the 1994 Olympics came after 10 minutes of overtime. That was a 14-shot shootout, only equalled in length when Pavol Demitra lifted Slovakia to a 2-1 win over Russia at the 2010 Olympics.
The longest game in NHL history saw Modere “Mud” Bruneteau of the Detroit Red Wings scoring the 1-0 winner in sextuple overtime against the Montreal Maroons in Game One of the 1936 Stanley Cup final. It lasted 176:30. That game also saw Normie Smith make 90 saves during a time saves were not consistently registered – arguably the NHL’s all-time record.
The longest European pro game – believed to be the longest ever – featured Norway's Storhamar Ishockey defeating Sparta Warriors 2-1 in the eighth overtime on Joakim Jensen’s goal in 2017. That ran 217:14.
So far, this 2019/20 hockey season has been like no other, and there is still a long, hot summer march ahead before the Stanley Cup is awarded – potentially as late as 4 October.
So far, this 2019/20 hockey season has been like no other, and there is still a long, hot summer march ahead before the Stanley Cup is awarded – potentially as late as 4 October.