Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 85 saves on Wednesday night, and lost. Brayden Point scored with 9:33 remaining in the *fifth* overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win over the Blue Jackets in Game of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series (the game length even forced the NHL to move Bruins-Hurricanes Game 1 to Wednesday) .
Stopping 85 of 88 shots, only to lose a playoff game, has to be an incredibly frustrating feeling.
Korpisalo blew away the previous record for most saves in a playoff game- 73 saves by the New York Islanders’ Kelly Hrudey in 1987:
Now, on the other side of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy was quite fantastic himself. Vasilevskiy stopped 61 of 63 shots to lead Tampa Bay to victory.
So, great goaltending and not much offense in Game 1. We’ll see if that changes in Game 2 on Thursday for these two teams, who will certainly appreciate the day off on Wednesday following this exhausting marathon.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.