This anomalies of the 2020 hockey season have somehow gotten weirder.
On the first official day of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the two-seed Tampa Bay Lightning and seven-seed Columbus Blue Jackets played one of the longest games in NHL history, lasting five overtime periods until Tampa Bay came away with the 3-2 win.
The matchup spanned 150 minutes and 27 seconds, ranking as the fourth-longest game in NHL history and the second-longest game in the league's modern era.
The longest spanning game in NHL history was on March 24, 1936, between the Montreal Maroons and Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings won 1-0 in six overtimes, over the course of 176 minutes and 30 seconds.
The Lightning-Blue Jackets matchup subsequently eliminated two Capitals games from the leaderboard. It knocked the 1996 Washington-Pittsburgh game, which lasted 139:15 in four overtimes, out of the top five, and the 1987 Easter Epic between the Capitals and Islanders, which lasted 128:47 and four overtimes, out of the top 10.
Columbus struck first in Tuesday's matchup, finding the back of the net two minutes into the game on a power-play goal from Pierre-Luc Dubois. Tampa Bay answered four minutes later to tie the game at one.
In the second period, Columbus regained the lead before Tampa Bay delivered the equalizer 23 seconds into the third period.
The game remained 2-2 for the remainder of the third period and four and a half overtime periods until Brayden Point scored at the 10:27 minute mark of the fifth overtime period.
Blue Jackets goalie Joonas Korpisalo recorded an NHL record 88 saves in the loss.
The game also caused the Bruins-Hurricanes matchup set for Tuesday night to be postponed to Wednesday morning as a result of the long-spanning game.
Now, the two teams will have one night to recover from the marathon matchup before facing off again on Thursday in Game 2 of the series. Three-seed Capitals will get their first shot at a playoff win against the six-seed Islanders on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.
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Lightning-Blue Jackets goes to 5OT, becomes fourth-longest game in NHL history originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
