All night long: Four OTs most since ’85

Monday’s slate matched only twice before

In Toronto, Tyler Bozak’s tip-in put a charge into the Air Canada Centre. Ditto with Nashville when the Predators scored in OT for another win over Chicago.

They had some extra fun in Boston and Calgary, too, before Ottawa and Anaheim finally broke through.

There are few thrills quite like overtime playoff hockey, and the NHL hasn’t had a night with this sort of excitement in more than 30 years. Four post-season games Monday went to OT for the first time since April 10, 1985, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The only other time it happened before that was April 11, 1980.

“Those are the most fun games to play, definitely,” Bozak said.

There’s been fun to go around in these playoffs. Eleven of the first 24 post-season games went to overtime in the first round, including all three games between Toronto and Washington and two between Ottawa and Boston. All eight first-round series have included at least one OT finish. The record for an entire post-season is 17 overtime games in 2013.

And with underdogs like Nashville, Toronto and St. Louis threatening early upsets, these playoffs are getting an extra boost.

“It was a 10,” Predators head coach Peter Laviolette said of the atmosphere Monday .“I’ m not sure there’ s another place like it .”

And then there’s the party in Toronto, which hadn’t hosted a playoff game since 2013. Bozak’s goal at 1:37 into overtime put the Leafs ahead of Washington 2-1 in their series. Bozak celebrated by jumping on Nazem Kadri, who passed the puck to set up the winner, and the pair was mobbed by the rest of the squad.

“It’s a lot of emotion,” Bozak said. “You just want to be with your teammates and celebrate.”