Overtime games record in play-offs fast approaching
If you are aware of the current ice hockey affairs then you would very well be familiar with the trend in the play-offs current. The games are going in overtime to be decided more often than not.
This past Thursday, only one game was played that mark only the second night out of the past 17 nights that a game didn’t go into overtime.
The play-offs have gone past almost two rounds and there have already been 20 overtime games out of the 63 that have been played so far.
The record for most overtime games in play-offs is 28 games that were set during the 1993 postseason. With two rounds of the play-offs yet to play, there are high chances that this record might very well break.
The reason as to why there is a chance of this happening is due to the fact that this is the first time the overtime games tally has touched the 20 games mark after 2003 when 22 out of 89 games were decided in overtime.
Another record that will be broken for sure is the fact that in recent history, it was the home team that was the dominating one in the overtime.
However, this year things are different and it is the away team that has done a lot of damage. Out of the 20 overtime games played in the play-offs so far, 13 have been won by teams while playing on away ice.
The year 2007 was productive for the home teams as they managed to win 12 out of the 17 overtime games played.
However, last year it was the Chicago Blackhawks who won the Stanley Cup in overtime in game six against the Flyers but still on a whole, last year’s play-offs were dominated by away sides.
If we open the history books then there have been 383 games that have gone into overtime since the 1990 postseason. Out of these many games, the away teams have won 197 games.
This year’s first hat-trick was scored Devin Setoguchi, which made him the 15th National Hockey League player and the first San Jose Sharks player to complete his hat-trick with a goal in overtime.
However, when talking about the better performers in the play-offs so far, then we can say that the goal keepers have come up with the better performances.
Tampa Bay Lightning and their 41 year old goal keeper Dwayne Roloson have been superb in the play-offs thus far as they have recorded seven straight wins. This is an amazing feat that Roloson has achieved, marking the second time that he has recorded seven
consecutive winning games streaks.
Another one of the out-class performers in the play-offs is goal keeper of the Boston Bruins, Tim Thomas who was leading the regular season with his heroics and has shown glimpses of the same performances in the play-offs as well.
Tags: