Two Norwegian ice hockey teams set a record early Monday for the longest ever match, playing for three and half hours with eight overtime periods.
Two Norwegian ice hockey teams set a record early Monday for the longest ever match, playing for three and half hours with eight overtime periods.
The score was nothing extraordinary -- a 2-1 home win for Storhamar Dragons over Sparta Warriors -- in the quarter-final of the Norwegian championship.
Locked at 1-1 following the first three periods the match turned into a comedy of errors and saves -- Storhamar firing 96 times at goal and Sparta 93.
Finally eight and a half hours after the game started and 217 minutes and 14 seconds of play later Joakim Jensen scored the winner for Storhamar.
The longest previous game was in the NHL, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in a 1936 Stanley Cup final after 176 minutes and 30 seconds.
The match began at 18:00 and finally wrapped up at 02:30 Monday morning with local police revealing they received frantic calls from worried families after some spectators had failed to return home.
"Several reports to the police about this. For information the match is not over," police tweeted at 02:00.
