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Quickies …

Did you know …

that the largest attendance ever for a hockey game was 74,554 for a match between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University on October 6, 2001, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan? The college rivals had to settle for a 3–3 tie in a hockey battle that was dubbed “The Cold War.”

When did the longest shootout in NHL history take place?

For three periods, on November 26, 2005, the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers battled it out at Madison Square Garden, ending the game’s regulation time with a 2–2 tie. After five minutes of overtime, the score was still tied. Under the NHL’s new rule, the next step to break the tie was a shootout in which each team had a chance to score with one of its players in alone on the opponent’s goaltender. The Capitals’ goalie, Olaf Kolzig, and the Rangers netminder, Henrik Lundqvist, got ready for the barrage of “breakaways” they would have to face. Neither had any idea just how long the shootout would take. In the first three rounds each team scored twice but couldn’t break the deadlock. After Washington’s 15th shooter failed to score, it was the Rangers’ turn. Coach Tom Renney had to choose defenceman Marek Malik after running out of every other available possibility. Malik hadn’t scored a goal in 21 months, but he gamely skated in on Kolzig, passed the puck behind himself, and fired it from between his own legs over the startled Washington goalie, just under the crossbar, to finally end the game in a 3–2 victory for New York.