Hell of a game in the NHL. At the beginning of the playoffs, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets play the fourth longest game in history.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have kept their breath in an epic opening game in the last sixteen of the NHL playoffs.
After 150 minutes and 27 seconds, the Florida team won the fourth-longest play-off game in league history by Brayden Point’s goal in the fifth overtime, beating Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in the fifth overtime and taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
As the game at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto lasted for a total of six hours and 13 minutes, the subsequent match one of the series between the Boston Bruins and the Carolina Hurricanes had to be rescheduled for Wednesday morning at 11.00 local time (17.00 CEST) – the longest encounter ever between the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons in 1936 lasted 167:30 minutes.
Much shorter, but equally successful, was the opening game for German international Tobias Rieder and the Calgary Flames. The 27-year-old celebrated a 3-2 victory with the Canadians against the Dallas Stars. Rieder reached almost eleven minutes of ice time.
Due to the Corona Pandemic, the NHL has decided on a shortened season final in tournament form in the Canadian venues Edmonton and Toronto.