The NHL playoffs are nearing a record for penalty shots and it's still the first round
No game in the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs has ever ended with a goal on a penalty shot in overtime and Carolina's Jordan Martinook was not eager to make history. He and the Hurricanes thought they'd won Game 2 of their first-round series against Ottawa when teammate Mark Jankowski scored, but a league-initiated challenge ruled the play to be offside, took the goal off the board and rewound the clock. The very next shift, Martinook was hooked by Senators forward Warren Foegele on a breakaway and awarded a penalty shot.
“I was trying to tell (the referee) we needed the power play, not the penalty shot,” Martinook said. He got turned aside by Linus Ullmark, then scored the winner in double overtime. Through Thursday night's games, there have been four penalty shots already in these playoffs — more through 21 games than the previous three years' worth combined, including zero in 2025 — and the goaltenders have saved all four.
Two more penalty shots would tie the record for the most in a single postseason. There doesn't seem to be a reason for the uptick in refs calling for penalty shots over power plays, but there is no doubt it has added rare and must-see entertainment to a compelling first round. “Everything’s very circumstantial,” Buffalo goalie Alex Lyon said after denying Boston's Viktor Arvidsson in Game 3 on Thursday night.
He's not sure if he'd rather face the 1-on-1 matchup or endure a 2-minute penalty kill. “To be honest with you, every player in this league has the ability to score on penalty shots,” Lyon said. “So yeah, I guess it’s just more circumstantial, but I don’t really have a definitive answer one way or the other.
” Lyon stopped Arvidsson, Ullmark stopped Martinook, Philadelphia's Owen Tippett missed the net against Pittsburgh's Stuart Skinner, and Colorado's Scott Wedgewood made such a highlight-reel save on Los Angeles' Quinton Byfield that jubilant fans in Denver broke the glass behind the Kings' bench. “Never really seen the glass shatter behind the bench,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said following a repair process that delayed the game more than 15 minutes. “That’s a different one.