#Lightning outlast Blue Jackets in 5-OT NHL playoff thriller

One game into the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs and already there’s an instant classic. Or make that two, depending on how you count.

The Blue Jackets and Lightning went five overtimes — that’s two full games, plus two extra periods for good measure — before they could find a Game 1 winner, as Brayden Point scored on the 151st total shot of the game to give the Lightning a well-deserved 3-2 victory at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

Columbus goaltender Joonas Korpisalo broke the previous record for saves in a playoff game, passing the mark of 73, set by the Islanders’ Kelly Hrudey in a 4-OT, Game 7 win over the Capitals on April 18, 1987.

Korpisalo finished the game with 85 saves on 88 shots, while Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 61 saves of his own on 63 shots, combining for 151 shots on goal, another NHL record. The game, which started at 3 p.m., went so long it pushed Game 1 of the Bruins-Hurricanes series, originally scheduled for 8 p.m., to 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The final goal was scored at 9:20, nearly four and a half hours after the tying goal was scored.Only five games in playoff history have gone at least five overtimes, with a game between the Mighty Ducks and Stars on April 24, 2003, the last to go at least five extra periods.Last season, the Blue Jackets swept the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Lightning in the first round of the playoffs