Last night it seemed like Ilya Kovalchuk never came off the ice in the middle of the 3rd period.

So I checked the official shift chart and here is the sequence of events.

Game Time Elapsed

• 5:13-5:59 Kovalchuk on for 0:46
  
• 31 second rest
• 6:30-7:57 Kovalchuk on for 1:27
  
• 41 seconds rest
• 8:38-11:59 Kovalchuk on for 3:21
  

Yes, that last shift was 3 1/2 minutes long. But even more amazing, in a span of 6:46, Ilya Kovalchuk was out on the ice for 5:34. That's right just 72 seconds of rest in a stretch of nearly 7 minutes of game action. The final shift in that sequence lasted 3 minutes and 21 seconds!!!

But here's the real kicker--the 3 1/2 minutes shift in the 3rd wasn't even his longest one in the game. In the 2nd period he played for 4 minutes and 6 seconds without coming off the ice. I don't know if the team tracks this sort of thing, but I'm guessing that might be a team record for longest shift.