Point, Tampa Bay win six-hour opener
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets just can’t help making history in the playoffs. Last year, it was the historic sweep of the No. 1 Lightning by the 16th seed. This year, the two teams opened up with the fourth-longest game in Stanley Cup playoffs history.
More than six hours into Game 1, Brayden Point finally ended it. He fired off a shot from the slot that landed top shelf above goalie Joonas Korpisalo.
Lightning 3, Blue Jackets 2. Five overtimes.
Tampa Bay forward Alex Killorn said Monday that the Lightning were just excited to finally play post-season hockey. They had sat for five months waiting for hockey to return and then spent 10 days watching other teams play elimination series, while they played a round robin.
Well, the Lightning got their chance at a whole lot of playoff hockey — more than two games worth to settle Game1in Toronto . Tampa Bay and Columbus played 110:04 in hockey time, and more than four hours on the real-life clock, between
Yanni Gourde’s tying goal early in the third period and the game-winner. The game went on long enough that the team snacked on bananas, oatmeal, chicken and brown rice during the fifth intermission.
Both goalies, but Korpisalo in particular, can be thanked, or blamed, for the length of the game. Korpisalo faced 88 shots and set a playoffs record by saving 85 of them.
Midway through the third overtime, Gourde put a nice redirection on net and Korpisalo slid to his right while closing his five hole to make the closerange pad save look easy.
Nikita Kucherov had the best chance to end the game late in the first overtime. Palat set him up with an open side of the net and Kucherov’s shot went wide. He hung his head, acknowledging the golden chance gone by.
The day started as one of bounces and deflections. Pierre-Luc Dubois scored the first goal in the first period, but only in so much as Alex Texier’s shot bounced off him.
Point tied the score up in the same fashion four minutes later. Victor Hedman’s shot didn’t make it all the way to net, Kucherov jumped on the puck and fired off a shot that deflected off Point’s leg. Oliver Bjorkstrand put the Jackets back on top in the final minute of the second.