Korpisalo Breaks Playoff Record in Losing Effort Against Lightning

Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point ruined a fantastic moment for goaltender Joonas Korpisalo as Point scored 10:27 into the fifth overtime of Game 1, sealing the win for the Lightning in a contest where the Blue Jackets’ goaltender shattered the record for saves in a playoff game.

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 on Tuesday night in the fourth-longest game in Stanley Cup playoff history. It was so long, the following game between the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins had to be postponed until the following morning.

And, while the game itself was incredible, it was the storylines within the game that were the real takeaway. Really, you couldn’t ask for a better way to kick off the first game of the best-of-seven 2020 NHL playoffs.

Korpisalo’s Performance Was Outstanding

Korpisalo was the game’s top star making 85 saves and posting a 0.966 save percentage in the loss. As the previous record holder Kelly Hrudey watched on and analyzed the performance in between periods during Sportsnet’s broadcast of the game, the former NHL goaltender who held the record with 73 saves couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear hoping both netminders might break his record.

Hrudey tried to relay what both goaltenders were going through as the game wore on, but you could tell he was in his glory talking about two incredibly special performances.

“You just try to go save by save, not thinking too much,” Korpisalo said of his performance. “I think I felt pretty good. The boys, they were battling hard in front of me.”

Amazingly, Andrei Vasilevskiy (who made 61 stops) didn’t even earn one of the other stars of the game. No, those went to Point who scored the overtime winner and defenseman Seth Jones who played a whopping 65:06 in the loss for Columbus.

Needless to say, the rest of the games in this series are going to have a hard time living up to the first.

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