Pity any poor Florida Panthers fans hoping to sneak out of Tuesday’s game early to beat the traffic. Their team’s game against the Washington Capitals was decided by an NHL record 20-round shootout.
They did at least get to see their team win, with Nick Bjugstad scoring (he had failed on his first attempt) to seal the shootout 6-5. Every skater in the game had an attempt, and four players went twice. It was familiar territory for the Capitals – they lost the second-longest shootout in history – which took 15 rounds – to the New York Rangers in 2005.
Tuesday’s shootout took 17min 43sec in total – that’s five minutes longer than the world record for the 5000m. Roberto Luongo set up the Panthers’ win when he stopped Alex Ovechkin. “I’ve never seen anything like [the shootout],” Luongo said. “The great thing is I don’t know how many times guys bailed me out where they had to score to keep it alive and they did every time. It was amazing. It’s not the way we draw it up, to go 20 rounds here, but obviously it’s a big win.”
Gerard Gallant, the Panthers coach, was predictably upbeat. “That was exciting,” he said. “Everybody loved that, especially with the way it ended, winning a game like that with Bjugstad’s goal. Everybody got a chance to shoot, and a big two points, so we’re real happy.”
The Panthers’ win doesn’t quite beat the longest shootout in soccer history. That took 24 rounds, with KK Palace beating Civics 17-16 in the 2005 Namibian Cup final.
