What Is The Longest NHL Game?

The longest NHL game went to six overtimes, and was played between the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons on March 24, 1936.

What Is The Longest NHL Game?
The longest NHL game went to six overtimes, and was played between the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons on March 24, 1936.

Introduction

NHL games are 60 minutes long, but they can sometimes go into overtime. overtime is an extra period of play that is used to determine a winner if the score is tied at the end of regulation time. The longest NHL game ever played was in 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons were tied 1-1 after six overtime periods. The game went on for 176 minutes and 30 seconds, or nearly three hours!

What is the longest NHL game?

The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league founded in 1917. The Stanley Cup, the oldest and most prestigious trophy in all of professional ice hockey, is awarded to the team that wins the playoffs each year. There have been some epic battles for the Stanley Cup throughout the years, but none have been longer than the game that took place between the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons on March 24, 1936. That game holds the record for being the longest NHL game ever played. It went six full overtime periods before finally ending at 2:25am.

The history of the longest NHL game

The longest NHL game went into six overtime periods, lasting over 176 minutes of game time. The game was between the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens, and it ended in a 1-1 tie.

Both teams had several opportunities to score in the overtime periods, but they were unable to do so. Eventually, the game had to be called because both teams were exhausted.

This is the only NHL game that has ever gone into six overtime periods. It holds the record for being the longest NHL game in terms of both time and number of overtime periods.

How the longest NHL game ended

On March 24, 1936, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Maroons played the longest game in NHL history. The game went into overtime, and then a second overtime, and then a third. It wasn’t until the sixth overtime period that Mud Bruneteau finally ended the game, scoring the winning goal for the Red Wings.

That game lasted 176 minutes and 30 seconds of play time, which is still the NHL record. In terms of actual playing time, it was just over six hours. But when you factor in all the stoppages and intermissions, the game lasted more than seven hours from start to finish.

Interestingly, that game was not actually a playoff game. It was a regular season game that went into overtime because neither team could score a winning goal in regulation time. Imagine if a Stanley Cup playoff game went that long!

What has happened since the longest NHL game?

On April 3, 1936, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Maroons played the longest game in NHL history. The game went into the sixth overtime before Mud Bruneteau finally ended it, scoring at 16:30 of the sixth extra period.

Since that game there have been 14 other games that have gone into at least five overtimes, with the most recent being on March 24, 2020 when the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 in five overtimes. That game was just over 92 minutes long.