Right after six hrs, five overtimes and a blended 151 shots on aim, the Tampa Bay Lightning received an epic Game 1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Brayden Place scored 150 minutes, 27 seconds into the contest to give Tampa Bay a 3-2 win.
“It was pretty particular,” Lightning ahead Yanni Gourde reported. “We were being all exhausted. We had been all on the lookout for a aim. When we all observed that go in, it was a lot of emotion.”
And on the winning target, very well, there wasn’t considerably science to it: “I see a rolling puck coming to me, I just throw it on net. I’m not even contemplating,” Level explained.
It was the fourth-longest playoff recreation in NHL heritage — so lengthy that the Boston Bruins-Carolina Hurricanes sport, at first slated for Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, was rescheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. It will take arena workers about 90 minutes to disinfect the benches and clean up the ice between games such as warm-ups, Boston and Carolina faced a start out time generally reserved for beer leaguers.
Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo built 85 will save, a new NHL playoff report — topping New York Islanders goaltender Kelly Hrudey’s past mark of 73 saves, set in 1987. Columbus blocked 62 photographs in the game.
The Lightning on your own tallied 88 shots on target, as a lot of as the New York Rangers experienced merged in their 3 games against the Hurricanes in the qualification spherical.
“I’m truly hoping that Korpisalo breaks the 100-conserve mark,” Hrudey mentioned in an interview on Sportsnet amongst time beyond regulation durations. “And I’m genuinely hoping the video game goes so very long that [Andrei] Vasilevskiy breaks my record, as perfectly. It truly is just an unbelievable efficiency. I’ve been waiting for this for 20-one thing many years, at minimum.”
Vasilevskiy concluded with 61 saves.
Columbus defenseman Seth Jones also set a new NHL playoff document for ice time, skating in 65 minutes, 6 seconds, which conquer Sergei Zubov’s outdated record of 63 minutes, 51 seconds, for the Dallas Stars in 2003. Jones even bested his father, previous NBA player Popeye Jones, for minutes performed in a game. Popeye Jones’ occupation high was 56 minutes in 1996, while with the Toronto Raptors, all through a 3-overtime reduction to the Boston Celtics.
Soon after the game, Seth Jones explained he “feels fine” but that he took umbrage to the way the sport was known as.
“The officiating was, to me, kinda suspect,” Jones mentioned.
Just about every player on every single team registered a shot on aim besides for Columbus’ Cam Atkinson, though Atkinson did have a breakaway option soon just before Issue scored. Atkinson crashed into the net immediately after getting chased down by a defender, but there was no penalty referred to as on the perform.
At just one Tv timeout in the fourth overtime time period, the significant screen in the fanless Scotiabank Arena declared it was time for a seventh-inning extend. By the fifth additional time, a new concept appeared: “Sorry if you had other programs tonight.”
The Blue Jackets previously experienced worn out legs, playing their sixth sport in 9 days, including two that went to time beyond regulation.
Players on equally sides stated the mental fatigue was as exhausting as the bodily fatigue.
“There is certainly no way to put together for a recreation that goes that very long,” Level explained.
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