Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins Play in 5th Longest Stanley Cup Finals Game Ever
By Josh Hill
To call Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins a marathon is actually underselling it. We needed three overtimes to decide a winner and it will go down as the fifth longest game in Stanley Cup history. Had Andrew Shaw not ended the game at just over the halfway mark in the sixth period of the game, the Blackhawks and Bruins were around five minutes away from the longest game ever.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals just beat out the Penguins and Red Wings Game 5 from 2008 and just missed a 1931 Game 3 that featured the Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens.
What Game 1 of this year Stanley Cup Finals showed us though is that we’re in for one heck of a series. The Blackhawks came from behind to tie the game at 3-3 in the third period and things were held there until the third overtime period. Essentially, the Bruins and Blackhawks played two games back-to-back but Chicago only gets credit for one.
The longest game in Stanley Cup Finals history still belongs to the Boston Bruins in a way, as their 1990 Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers nearly lasted four overtimes had it not been for late game heroics by Petr Klima at the 55:13 mark in triple overtime.
The second longest game belongs to the Dallas Stars and Buffalo Sabres from 1999 but that game is unique in that Brett Hull’s goal in triple overtime was the game winner for the Stars. Clocking in at third longest is Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup between the Detroit Red Wings and Carolina Hurricanes.