You can thank (or blame) Olympic hockey shootouts for bringing one-on-one tiebreakers to the NHL. It is hard to imagine the procedure seriously crossing decision makers’ minds in the sport’s top circuit any other way.
While many North American minor leagues used shootouts before 2005, international contests gave them a mainstream platform. And in the ’90s, both future and established NHL talent made their names synonymous with the straightforward settler.
Two stark examples from the medal rounds of Lillehammer and Nagano were hardly glorious for hockey’s native country. With that said, Canada’s involvement in 1994 final and 1998 semifinal helped draw eyeballs. Ditto its participation in another eventful and momentous shootout at the 1992 Albertville Games.
Eventually, the quintessential pro league experimented with the shootout at the 2003 All-Star Game. Like it or not, that was effectively its gateway to regular-season play after the 2004-05 lockout.
Odds are it will never spill over to Stanley Cup playoff action, though. That is bad news for those who would rather get to bed than see history through. But if nothing else, the Olympic hockey annals will always have these dramatic memories of round-robin and playoff shootouts.
10. Japan vs. Austria (M) — 2/12/98
Granted, it was a bid for the dubious honor of avoiding last place in the final standings. Still, it was the host country’s final chance to hatch its goose-egg in the tournament win column.
Japan had opened its Nagano gig with a narrow 3-1 loss to a decidedly superior German team. It blew a pair of leads and stumbled before France, 5-2, then salvaged a 2-2 tie with Belarus to close its round-robin slate.
The home crowd’s passion never wavered amidst the reality checks, disappointments and moral victories. Then with 13th place out of 14 on the line, Japan drew another knot (3-3) with Austria.
A 10-minute overtime could not bust that deadlock. Ditto the standard five-round shootout, or the first pair of sudden-death one-on-ones. But Shin Yahata buried the permanent tiebreaker in the eighth round. And as the Associated Press articulated, “Fans did a two-handed banzai wave while the players raced onto the ice and then took a victory lap.”
9. Germany vs. Russia (W) — 2/20/06
The future star of the longest NCAA women’s championship game was perfect all day with fifth place at stake.
Four years after losing this same game to the Russians, 5-0, the Germans turned to the 18-year Jennifer Harss for the rematch. Harss, who had backstopped Germany’s lone round-robin win, halted 21 out of 21 Russian shots during the full-fledged hockey action. But counterpart Irina Gashennikova was a seamless 26-for-26.
Each goaltender prevailed on their first three respective penalty shots. In the fourth round, Maritta Becker finally offered Harss a pinch of breathing room with the game’s first strike.
When Harss denied Alexandra Kapustina’s attempt at an equalizer, the keys to victory went to Nikola Holmes. The German skater spared her backstop the formal door-slamming duties by beating Gashennikova to secure the victory.
8. Slovakia vs. Russia (M) — 2/18/10
In the first year of three-round Olympic shootouts, this round-robin contest extended to the equivalent of two. Those six exchanges failed to tip the scale either way, prompting a fourth sudden-death inning.
Alexander Ovechkin’s second-round equalizer had remained the decider, as Ilya Bryzgalov matched Jaroslav Halak’s rigidity. But after Halak turned in his fifth consecutive save, Slovakia’s Pavol Demitra cracked Bryzgalov’s code.
Zigzagging from the center dot to the boards to the porch, Demitra drew Bryzgalov to the left. With the opening in the upper left corner, he spooned home the decider.
7. Switzerland vs. Russia (W) — 2/22/10
For her second Olympic go-around, Swiss netminding phenom Florence Schelling had to take a two-week leave from Northeastern University. She joined the likes of Huskies teammate Julia Marty and Julia’s sister, Stefanie Marty of Syracuse.
Not surprisingly, Canada and Sweden both torched the Swiss in round-robin play. After salvaging a third-place finish in its group by topping Slovakia, Switzerland found a second wind. It would amount to a chance to take fifth place against Russia.
When a 1-1 knot spilled to the 60-minute mark, then stood through a 10-minute overtime, Schelling entered familiar territory. Three months prior, she had engaged future Canadian Olympian Genevieve Lacasse in a record-setting 13-round Hockey East shootout.
On her leadoff bid, Swiss skater Kathin Lehmann fumbled the puck. Russia’s Olga Sosina subsequently beat Schelling, shriveling Switzerland’s margin for error.
But Nicole Bullo offered quick relief with a second-round equalizer, and Schelling sustained the tie versus Iya Gavrivola. When Stefanie Marty granted Switzerland the lead, Schelling wasted no time turning it to stone. Her save on Yulia Deulina spared everyone sudden death.
6. Canada vs. Switzerland (M) — 2/18/10
Four days before his countrywoman stifled the Russians, Jonas Hiller confronted the tournament hosts. The result fell short of an upset, but hardly lacked drama.
For its shootout troika, Switzerland rolled out three skaters based in its native NLA. None of them could solve Canadian goaltender Martin Brodeur. But the Swiss forced sudden death when Hiller stymied NHLers Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Ryan Getzlaf.
When the shooting order switched for the fourth round, home bench boss Mike Babcock tapped Crosby once more. A nimble snap from the slot made for Hiller’s first shortcoming since the first minute of the second period.
With his chance to secure the victory, Brodeur promptly pawed down Martin Pluss’ would-be equalizer. The bonus point later proved critical for Canada, as it averted a virtual second-place tie in Group A with the Swiss.
5. USA vs. Russia (M) — 2/15/14
The game’s round-robin status is the only factor holding this shootout back in the ranking. The potent tournament host program’s involvement, however, secures its top-five stature.
Round-robin or not, Sochi’s locals were doubtlessly yearning for a delayed retort after a slew of Olympic losses to Team USA on American ice (1960, 1980, 2002). With Pavel Datsyuk’s 2-2, late-regulation equalizer, their padded countrymen only needed to outscore the Yanks in three one-on-one innings.
As it happened, it was more complicated than that. T.J. Oshie’s opening strike for the U.S. stood as the potential decider until Ilya Kovalchuk struck in the third round. The result was a roll into sudden death, with no rules against recycling shooters.
The two hottest hands got the call in the fourth round. While Oshie and Kovalchuk both whiffed, Oshie continued to get the call. Russia alternated between Datsyk and Kovalchuk for an eventual five sudden-death rounds.
Oshie missed his first two chances to clinch in the bottom of the fourth and seventh, respectively. But in between, he beat Sergei Bobrovsky on their third confrontation, saving the contest after Datsyuk and Kovalchuk connected.
When Jonathan Quick quelled Kovalchuk’s fourth attempt, Oshie had his sixth shot overall and third potential winner. He snapped it in low from the slot, later ensuring Team USA’s first-place finish in Group A.
4. Czech Republic vs. Canada (M) — 2/20/98
By trade, Robert Reichel was second fiddle to Slovak star Zigmund Palffy on an otherwise abysmal New York Islanders team. But he mustered a much more momentous highlight across the Pacific during the NHL’s first Olympic break. He was the requisite offensive complement to spotlight magnet Dominik Hasek in the Czech Republic’s proudest independent hockey moment.
The 26-year-old pivot led off his country’s lineup of one-on-ones against Canadian netminder Patrick Roy in the 1998 semifinal. After Reichel beat Roy, Hasek followed his literally upstanding stoning of Theo Fleury with similar denials to Ray Bourque and Joe Nieuwendyk.
When Hasek characteristically sprawled on his back to stymie Eric Lindros, Jaromir Jagr had a chance to clinch in the fourth inning. Roy would prevail against the eventual Art Ross Trophy winner. But in the fifth, the eventual repeat Vezina and Hart Trophy winner shut the door on Brendan Shanahan. And he sustained his seamlessness through a 1-0 blanking of Russia for the gold.
3. Sweden vs. USA (W) — 2/17/06
As stunning as the Czech triumph over Canada may have been, everyone already knew of Hasek’s capabilities. They did not, however, know much of what to expect from a first-time conglomeration of NHL stars in the Olympics.
Conversely, by the 2006 Torino Games, the U.S. women’s national team was an established force with general continuity. A core group highlighted by Angela Ruggiero and Jenny Potter looked primed for a third straight gold-medal game ticket.
The unknown in this equation was Swedish stopper Kim Martin. She had turned some heads in 2002, but not against any North American bigwigs. And whereas Team USA had been together for the equivalent of an NCAA season, she was taking leave from her club team.
Yet after preserving a 2-2 regulation draw on this day (11 days before her 20th birthday), she had solo confrontations with Natalie Darwitz, Potter, Ruggiero and Krissy Wendell.
Two goals by her skating mates at the other end meant she did not need to face a fifth American. She repelled all four of her challengers, backstopping the only non-North American semifinal win in Olympic women’s hockey to date.
2. Canada vs. Germany (M) — 2/18/92
A seesaw 60-minute tangle yielded a 3-3 draw in the quarterfinals of the first-ever Olympic hockey playoff. The upset-minded Germans’ subsequent rise from the ropes yielded the first sudden-death edition of Olympic hockey shootouts.
The suspense stayed stationary through two scoreless rounds, then Jason Wooley fed the upper-right shelf for a 1-0 lead. When Germany failed to retort on its third attempt, Wallace Schreiber put Canada on the cusp of the semifinals.
Michael Rumrich and Andreas Brockmann both beat Sean Burke, sandwiching Helmut De Raaf’s temporary game-saver. But in the ensuing sixth round, the reigning No. 1 NHL draft pick Lindros curled the go-ahead goal to De Raaf’s right.
On his second chance to slam the door, Burke stacked his pads and got a piece of Peter Draisaitl’s bid. The biscuit squeezed through and trickled behind him, only to come to a spinning halt along the goal line.
1. Sweden vs. Canada (M) — 2/27/94
There was more to this moment’s peerless greatness than the gold-medal implications. As the inimitable American network announcer Mike Emrick said in his wrap-up essay, “The difference between winning and losing — miniscule.”
Beyond regulation and 10 minutes of full-fledged sudden death, the standard five-round shootout did not suffice. Not even after Petr Nedved and Paul Kariya tuned the twine on Canada’s first two shots at Tommy Salo.
Salo recovered for his part, and had another 2-2 deadlock by the end of the fourth inning via Peter Forsberg. That standstill stood through the fifth and sixth rounds, prompting a second bid for Forsberg in the seventh.
The future NHL MVP befuddled Canadian goalie Corey Hirsh once more, luring him to the right post and one-handing a backhander into the vacant slab.
With Sweden’s first lead of the shootout at hand, Salo got a second look at Kariya in the bottom half. As with Nedved in the sixth, he capitalized on the mulligan, kicking out the reigning first-overall NHL draft pick’s shot. With that, Tre kronor was crowned for the first time atop hockey’s Olympus.
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