The national high school record is 11 overtimes, played by Minneapolis South and Thief River Falls in Minnesota in 1955. South won, 3-2.

Image Cleveland St. Ignatius players after their game with Sylvania Northview ended with the score at 1-1. Credit... Gus Chan/The Plain Dealer

Coaches and players from St. Ignatius and Northview were willing to play at least one more overtime. With three 15-minute periods and seven eight-minute overtimes, they had played 101 minutes.

“We were energized for that eighth overtime,” the St. Ignatius captain Harry Smith said. “We kept going back in the locker room and we kept telling each other, ‘The next time we come back in here, we’re going to be holding the state championship trophy.’ We were tired, but we were ready and didn’t want the game to end that way.”

Although none of the 40 players had been hurt, fear of a serious injury drove the decision to stop the game. Players from St. Ignatius were on the ice ready for the eighth overtime, and Northview players were in their locker room waiting for their coach to lead them out.

“What happens if we go into the eighth overtime and a kid is exhausted and he doesn’t keep his head up and gets run over and is taken out on a stretcher?” Northview Coach Mike Jones said. “If a kid doesn’t skate off that ice because he’s hurt, what kind of national debate is there going to be then?”

The move is not unprecedented. A 2008 Michigan hockey final was declared a tie after eight overtimes, and last month a girls’ hockey final in New York was halted after four overtimes between Skaneateles and Potsdam Central.