Swiss U18 national team player Gilian Kohler scored one goal in the game and another one in the shootout in EHC Biel’s win.
photo: Steve Kingsman / HHOF-IIHF Images
A major junior league game in Switzerland on Friday night set a new penalty-shot shootout record for a hockey game among male players.
EHC Biel’s junior team of Switzerland’s top junior league beat Geneve Futur 4-3 in a shootout on Friday night on home ice at Tissot Arena. While usually pro teams set shootout records, this time it was played in a different environment as 47 spectators became witness of the new shootout record in men’s hockey at a game of the junior league Elite A. 50 shots were needed to determine the winner after 65 minutes of hockey play.
Biel’s victory didn’t seem to be in danger with a 3-0 lead going into the 50th minute of play on a man advantage. Then the visitors from Geneva scored two shorthanded goals on the penalty and scored a third goal within a span of 4:13. Regulation game ended with a 3-3 tie and the five-minute overtime period remained scoreless.
After five rounds in the shootout it was 2-2 and no player managed to beat the goalies, Noah Patenaude for Biel and Stephane Charlin for Geneva, for a while until Yves Buschi scored with the 49th shot. All pressure was on Geneva’s Latvian player Sandis Smons but he didn’t score with the 50th shot and Biel won a game for the history books. It was the longest shootout in Swiss ice hockey history and the longest worldwide in male ice hockey.
The record came only two years after a game in Porrentruy, about an hour’s ride away from Biel, had set the previous record. HC Ajoie won a game against regional rival HC La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland’s second-tier league 3-2 after a 46-shot shootout.
The two shootouts had broken a record in men’s hockey from 2010 when a game in the top German league DEL between EHC Munchen and the Straubing Tigers ended after 42 shots. In 2014 the Florida Panthers won a shootout in the NHL against the Washington Capitals that was decided after 40 shots.
The longest shootouts in hockey were registered in women’s hockey. On 15 February 2015 AIK Stockholm’s Emmy Alasalmi scored with the 56th shot to lead her team to a victory at Brynas Gavle in the Swedish women’s hockey league. In January 2016 Memmingen beat Bergkamen after a 54-shot shootout in the top German women’s hockey league.
EHC Biel’s junior team of Switzerland’s top junior league beat Geneve Futur 4-3 in a shootout on Friday night on home ice at Tissot Arena. While usually pro teams set shootout records, this time it was played in a different environment as 47 spectators became witness of the new shootout record in men’s hockey at a game of the junior league Elite A. 50 shots were needed to determine the winner after 65 minutes of hockey play.
Biel’s victory didn’t seem to be in danger with a 3-0 lead going into the 50th minute of play on a man advantage. Then the visitors from Geneva scored two shorthanded goals on the penalty and scored a third goal within a span of 4:13. Regulation game ended with a 3-3 tie and the five-minute overtime period remained scoreless.
After five rounds in the shootout it was 2-2 and no player managed to beat the goalies, Noah Patenaude for Biel and Stephane Charlin for Geneva, for a while until Yves Buschi scored with the 49th shot. All pressure was on Geneva’s Latvian player Sandis Smons but he didn’t score with the 50th shot and Biel won a game for the history books. It was the longest shootout in Swiss ice hockey history and the longest worldwide in male ice hockey.
The record came only two years after a game in Porrentruy, about an hour’s ride away from Biel, had set the previous record. HC Ajoie won a game against regional rival HC La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland’s second-tier league 3-2 after a 46-shot shootout.
The two shootouts had broken a record in men’s hockey from 2010 when a game in the top German league DEL between EHC Munchen and the Straubing Tigers ended after 42 shots. In 2014 the Florida Panthers won a shootout in the NHL against the Washington Capitals that was decided after 40 shots.
The longest shootouts in hockey were registered in women’s hockey. On 15 February 2015 AIK Stockholm’s Emmy Alasalmi scored with the 56th shot to lead her team to a victory at Brynas Gavle in the Swedish women’s hockey league. In January 2016 Memmingen beat Bergkamen after a 54-shot shootout in the top German women’s hockey league.