On Shutout Exclusivity

Last night was a statistical curiosity in the NHL, as the Calgary Flames defeated the New Jersey Devils, 1-0, the Minnesota Wild downed the Winnipeg Jets, 1-0, and the Anaheim Ducks knocked off the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0. Three games, three shutouts.

Via Twitter today, Red Wings radio play-by-play voice Ken Kal mentioned that he didn’t know the last time that had happened so I dug into it.

According to stats from shrpsports.com, the last time there were three games on the NHL schedule, all ending in shutouts, was March 14, 1954. It happened eleven other times in the first four decades of the league’s existence but not again for sixty years before occurring last night.

Four games, each a shutout, has happened on two different nights in the league’s history, oddly only two days apart. On February 26, 1929, all four games ended in shutouts, and it happened again two night later on February 28. No games were scheduled on February 27, so eight consecutive games were shutouts.

As Bill Roose points out, there have been cases of three games and three shutouts, without all of the games ending in shutouts.

@detroithockey96 @KenKalDRW Still looking, found three SOs on three-game day on 11/23/03. CAR-TBL played to 0-0 tie and ATL beat PHX 1-0.
— The Wheel Deal (@Bill_Roose) April 8, 2014