“DOUBLE SHUTOUT” and “INBEE FOR THREE”
#750/#749
750. NEW YORK RANGERS VS NEW JERSEY DEVILS
JANUARY 12, 2010
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
QUALITY OF PLAY—8.47
DRAMA—7.29
STAR POWER—8.77
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—5.10
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.74
LOCAL IMPACT—7.88
TOTAL: 44.25
“DOUBLE SHUTOUT”
Incredibly, even long after New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur had broken the NHL record for shutouts after 16 NHL seasons, he had never pitched a zero at Madison Square Garden, the home of his primary rival, the New York Rangers. Yes, 106 clean sheets and none on Broadway.
So perhaps the 37-year old Brodeur was extra motivated when he took the ice on Tuesday night, January 12, 2010, for a regular season game with New York. His team was in first place in the Eastern Conference, while the Rangers were on a hot streak themselves, smoking a long stretch of crappy teams (they hadn’t played a winning team in a month) while taking 22 of a possible 28 points. Of course, the Blueshirts were led by their own outstanding netminder, Henrik “The King” Lundqvist.
It was a random night in the NHL, with only the intense Hudson River rivalry juicing matters for the 18,000 fans in the Garden. Most of Puckdom was tapping a collective finger until the start of the Winter Olympics, to be held in Vancouver just one month hence. Nine players, including Brodeur and Lundqvist, and both coaches (the Devils Jacques Lemaire and New York’s John Tortorella) would be part of the eagerly-awaited five-ring competition. So there was plenty of reason for one or both sides to mail this one in and get on with the grind of the regular season.
But the result instead was one of the greatest displays of goaltending ever seen.
For twenty minutes both offenses swirled, creating numerous chances. But the Hall of Famers in net kept the puck in play, with the game tied at nil after one. “I knew after the first period that it was going to be a tight game and I couldn’t afford any mistakes,” Lundqvist said.
Brodeur’s magic came in the second period, when he was peppered for an incredible 18 shots and turned them all away. Lundqvist got into the spirit of ‘anything you can do I can do just as well’ by stopping an even-more-astounding 19 shots in the third period. Despite the see-saw dominance neither team could solve the opposing goalie, and the game ended regulation time in a scoreless tie.
New York had the golden opportunity in the 4-on-4 overtime. Rangers forward Marion Gaborik swept in on Devils defender Johnny Oduya, got clear of the Swede, and put one on net that Brodeur deflected but didn’t fully stop. Agonizingly, it trickled just beyond the far post. “I didn’t know where it went,” Brodeur said. “I saw it only on the replay.” The overtime ended without a victor. After 65 minutes with no scoring the game went to a shootout, still tied at zero.
Brodeur had made an incredible 51 saves in the game (shootout stops don’t count as official saves), a number he funnily thought inflated. “I was looking at [the shot counter on the scoreboard],” he said. “I was loving it. They probably gave me more shots than I (faced). Not like in our building, where they take shots away from you. It did feel like it because there was a lot of traffic. We’ll take it. It’s good for the save percentage. I made over 40 for sure. Probably not 51.” For his part, Lundqvist’s official save number was 45 after the OT session. Strangely enough, finding records for combined saves in a single game is quite difficult; 96 may not be the record but such a sizable total posted by two legendary goalies stands out regardless.
The shootout began, and it was immediately clear that skating in alone with no defenders to stop them wasn’t going to be any help for the shooters against Brodeur and Lundqvist. Both goalies stopped all three attempts—Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner and Travis Zajac for Jersey, Erik Christensen, Ales Kotalik and Gaborik for New York. The game looked like it might go on forever. Brodeur denied Brandon Dubinsky on New York’s fourth penalty shot. Then Patrick Elias stepped on to the ice for the Devils.
At long last, the Devils center popped one over Lundqvist’s shoulder and into the untrammeled air inside the net. For the first time all night, the mesh moved, the twine snapped, and the red light turned on.
“He kind of faked the shot and I went down and I froze a little bit and then he roofed it,” the Rangers goalie explained. “It was a weird shot but he’s a good shooter. I will think about it. I would have done it a little bit different.”
It was finally over. The Devils had secured the 1-0 shootout win. It was Brodeur’s 107th career shutout, and, at last, his first in the Garden.
“I’ll definitely remember this one,” said Brodeur. “To have two teams play the way they played tonight, and then to end it with something that’s a bit of a gimmick, well, you guys know how I feel about the shootout,” he said.
51 saves, a shutout, an incredible night in goal, and Brodeur still found something to be tetchy about…
AFTERMATH:
The season didn’t end well for either team, courtesy of the sextet representing the City of Brotherly Love. The Rangers fell off badly down the stretch and missed the playoffs entirely, losing the final de facto play-in game to Philadelphia. New Jersey went on to win the Atlantic Division but in the first round they were upset by those same Flyers in five games.
The 2010 Olympics provided happier times for Brodeur, who won his second gold medal as Team Canada defeated the USA in a memorable overtime thriller (propelled merely by national pride and not massive loathing for the American government). Lundqvist and Sweden lost in the quarterfinals.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“It was a game worthy of the nine Olympians on the ice and the two behind the benches, a rugged but cleanly played contest of unrelenting high speed and numerous chances. In the end, however, it was the goaltending that was the most Olympian of all.”
—Jeff Z. Klein, The New York Times
FURTHER READING:
The Goaltender’s Union by Greg Oliver and Richard Kramchen
VIDEO:
749. WOMEN’S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
FINAL ROUND
JUNE 14, 2015
WESTCHESTER COUNTRY CLUB
QUALITY OF PLAY—6.63
DRAMA—5.90
STAR POWER—7.55
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.85
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—7.64
LOCAL IMPACT—8.69
TOTAL: 44.26
“INBEE FOR THREE”
Change was in the air at the richest major on the women’s tour. 2015 marked the first incarnation of the “Women’s PGA Championship,” after decades as the “LPGA Championship.” Before then, the LPGA and PGA (of America) were unrelated entities, but a marketing deal brought them together, and the “LPGA Championship” was no more. Small beer, perhaps, except the new deal brought a lot more money into the purse—the winner’s prize bumped from $2.25 million to $3.5 million. Accounting and tax loophole giant KPMG replaced Wegman’s as title sponsor, and the overall vibe was “bigger and richer.” It marked a big boost for women’s golf.
That extended to venue. The Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y., had hosted some forty PGA Tour events, but never the ladies, until the second week of June, 2015. The weekend may have been all about change, but there was one constant—the best player in the world won yet again.
At 26 years old, Inbee Park was the ruler of women’s golf, part of a South Korean dominance of the sport. Park had taken the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open title across the Sound in Long Island, and won the LPGA that year as well. She followed up with another LPGA title in 2014, so she was going for the threepeat (by any name) when she teed off on June 11, 2015 on Westchester’s West Course.
She shot a 71 in the first round, including a bogey on 16. That, amazingly, was the last hole she would shoot over par in the tournament. After Saturday she seized a two-stroke lead, and much as was often the case with Tiger Woods on the men’s tour, the rest of the field seemed defeated going into Sunday.
“I think it’s just the best spot to be in,” Park said of her 54-hole lead, adding: “People say you just feel a lot of pressure when you’re leading. But then, you know, at the same time, you’re in the best position for the trophy. Even if you shoot the same number with other players, you win.”
The steady and imperturbable Park was paired in the final round with fellow Korean Sei Young Kim, like Park born in Seoul, and by the fourth hole had already doubled her lead to four strokes. Kim collapsed to a double-bogey seven on the ninth, and Park’s victory was in the bag. It was just a question of how big a margin.
It wound up at five strokes, with Kim holding on for second and Lexi Thompson, who pushed hard with eight birdies over the first thirteen holes but fell away late, in third.
Park’s third consecutive title in the event was matched only by Annika Sorenstam. Her 19-under par tied the record for best at a female major, as well as the course record at Westchester. Overall it was Park’s sixth major, and put her atop golf as World Number One for the third time.
The organizing committee had had to add a new base to the historic big silver trophy to accommodate all of the names now etched into it. The last name, at the very bottom, was Park’s.
“If I had known that she would win again,” said Michael Whan, the Tour Commissioner, “we could’ve saved the trouble and just put tick marks next to Inbee’s name.”
AFTERMATH:
Park won the British Open later that summer, her seventh and final major title. Overall she captured 31 Tour victories. She also won the Olympic gold medal in 2016, the first women’s golf tournament held at the Games since 1904. She had a child in 2023 and has kept a low profile since her glory days.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“I think I always dreamed myself being a part of history. Leaving my name, even before I die — there is my name on this trophy. There’s a name on the U.S. Open trophy. There’s my name on great championships. People remember me still. I think it’s just great to do things like that.”
—Inbee Park
FURTHER READING:
Champions of Women’s Golf: Celebrating Fifty Years of the LPGA by Nanette Sansom
VIDEO:
https://www.lpga.com/videos/2015/final-round-highlights-from-the-kpmg-womens-pga-championship