Following six hours, five extra amounts of time and a consolidated 151 shots on goal, the Tampa Bay Lightning dominated an epic Match 1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Brayden Point scored 150 minutes, 27 seconds into the challenge to give Tampa Bay a 3-2 win.
“It was very special,” Lightning forward Yanni Gourde said. “We were all exhausted. We were all looking for a goal. When we all saw that go in, it was a lot of emotion.”
What’s more, on the triumphant goal, well, there wasn’t a lot of science to it: “I see a rolling puck coming to me, I just throw it on net. I’m not even thinking,” Point said.
It was the fourth-longest playoff game in NHL history – so long that the Boston Bruins-Carolina Hurricanes game, initially scheduled for Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, was rescheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. It takes field laborers approximately an hour and a half to sanitize the seats and clean the ice between games; including warm-ups, Boston and Carolina confronted a beginning time commonly saved for lager leaguers.
Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 85 recoveries, another NHL season finisher record – beating New York Islanders goaltender Kelly Hrudey’s past characteristic of 73 spares, set in 1987. Columbus blocked 62 shots in the game.
The Lightning alone counted 88 shots on objective, the same number of as the New York Rangers had joined in their three games against the Hurricanes in the capability round.
“I’m actually hoping that Korpisalo breaks the 100-save mark,” Hrudey said in an interview on Sportsnet between overtime periods. “And I’m really hoping the game goes so long that [Andrei] Vasilevskiy breaks my record, as well. It’s just an incredible performance. I’ve been waiting for this for 20-something years, at least.”
Vasilevskiy got done with 61 recoveries.
Columbus defenseman Seth Jones likewise set another NHL season finisher record for ice time, skating in a short time, 6 seconds, which beat Sergei Zubov’s old record of 63 minutes, 51 seconds, for the Dallas Stars in 2003. Jones even bested his dad, previous NBA player Popeye Jones, for a considerable length of time played in a game. Popeye Jones’ vocation high was 56 minutes in 1996, while with the Toronto Raptors, during a three-additional time misfortune to the Boston Celtics.
After the game, Seth Jones said he “feels fine” yet that he disliked to the manner in which the game was called.
“The officiating was, to me, kinda suspect,” Jones said.
Each player in each group enrolled a shot on objective with the exception of Columbus’ Cam Atkinson, however Atkinson had a breakaway open door in a matter of seconds before Point scored. Atkinson collided with the net in the wake of being pursued somewhere near a protector, however there was no punishment approached the play.
At one TV break in the fourth additional time frame, the big screen in the fanless Scotiabank Arena declared it was the ideal opportunity for a seventh-inning stretch. By the fifth extra time, another message showed up: “Sorry if you had other plans tonight.”
The Blue Jackets previously had tired legs, playing their 6th game in nine days, including two that went to additional time.
Players on the two sides said the psychological weakness was as debilitating as the physical weariness.
“There’s no way to prepare for a game that goes that long,” Point said.
