Kalinski is king of long games

Fri, May 16 2008

— Jon Kalinski’s final games in a Minnesota State hockey uniform were nothing short of epic.
Six weeks later, people around Mankato are still talking about the two double-overtime games sandwiched around a single-overtime game against the University of Minnesota in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
Those, however, were nothing compared to what Kalinski experienced Thursday night in Albany, N.Y.
That night, Kalinski’s new team, the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League, played a five-overtime marathon against the Albany River Rats as part of their playoff series.
The Phantoms won the game with ex-Gopher Ryan Potulny’s goal at 2:58 of the fifth extra period. After Albany bounced back with a single-overtime win on Saturday, the two teams will play a Game 7 tonight in Philadelphia.
At 142 minutes, 58 seconds, Thursday’s game was the longest in the AHL’s 72-year history. In actual time, the game lasted 5 hours, 38 minutes.
“When we got to the fifth overtime period, we didn’t know what period it was,” Kalinski said in a phone interview Monday. “Guys were cramping up and pretty much just falling over. It was almost hard to celebrate (the game-winning goal).”
To compare, the longest game in NHL history ended at 16:30 of the sixth overtime (176:30) when the Montreal Maroons defeated the Detroit Red Wings 1-0 in the 1936 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The longest Division I college game took place in 2006 when Yale topped Union 3-2 at 1:35 of the fifth overtime (141:35) during the ECAC playoffs.
Minnesota State’s 1-0 win over Minnesota, in which Kalinski assisted on Trevor Bruess’ game-winning goal with 2:02 left in the second overtime, ranks as the 15th longest game in college history. Minnesota’s 3-2 win with 3:01 left in double-overtime two nights later ranks 17th.
“You can sort of compare them,” Kalinski said. “(Thursday’s game) was just three periods longer. It gets tiring, but you have to fight through it.”
Kalinski had three of his team’s 101 shots on goal in the game. He had no points and took a slashing penalty in the third overtime. He said he just got off the ice after a shift when the game-winning goal was scored.
Currently, the Phantoms, the top minor-league team of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, feature several ex-college players, including three of the seven WCHA players who left school early to turn pro this spring: Kalinski, St. Cloud State forward Andreas Nodl and Michigan Tech goaltender Michael-Lee Teslak.
“It’s been great,” Kalinski said. “I’m having a lot of fun, and I’m playing pretty well. It’s going a lot better than I expected.”
Longer, too.

Shane Frederick is a Free Press staff writer. Access his college hockey blog through mankatofreepresshockey.blogspot.com/

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