In a game that started Wednesday evening and ended well into Thursday morning, the Chicago Blackhawks downed the Boston Bruins in triple overtime to take Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals.
In the fifth longest game in Stanley Cup finals history, the teams battled for what nearly amounted to back-to-back games before Chicago's Andrew Shaw redirected a shot past Bruins goalie Tuuka Rask midway through the third overtime to win it. Chicago's Michal Roszival fired one from the blue line that pinged off two teammates — first center Dave Bolland and then Shaw — before finding its way into the back of the net.
It was the longest finals game since the Red Wings and Hurricanes played three OTs back in 2002. And with 52:08 of overtime played before the winning goal, the game fell just three minutes shy of becoming the longest game in finals history.
It wasn't even close, however, to matching the longest game from any round in playoffs history. In 1936, Detroit and Montreal played six overtimes before the Red Wings scored the first goal of the entire game to claim a 1-0 win.
The Bruins and Blackhawks combined for an incredible 117 shots; Rask and Chicago goalie Corey Crawford played phenomenally, turning aside 110 of those attempts.
The Bruins had a chance to end it in the final seconds of double overtime, but a power play blast from Zdeno Chara, redirected off the skate of Jaromir Jagr, clanged off the post.
Game two is Saturday night in Chicago.
