Jágr records 2 points in first game in 2 months; eclipses Howe's age record

The Czech Extraliga finals between Dynamo Pardubice and Oceláři Třinec are tied 1-1.

At the other end of the spectrum, the league’s last-place team – Rytiří Kladno – is fighting to stay in the league against the challenger from the country’s second-tier league – VHK Vsetín. Kladno now leads the series 2-0 following a 7-2 victory that featured a two-point performance from a 52-year-old who hadn’t played a game in more than two months.

Yes, just when you think you’ve heard the last of him, the ageless wonder strikes again. Due to an injury to one of the team’s top forwards, Jaromír Jágr inserted himself into the lineup, played over 11 minutes and chipped in with a goal and an assist for the team he co-owns.

At 52 years and 63 days, Jágr is 52 days older than Gordie Howe when the latter played his final NHL playoff game in 1980, and 54 days older than when Howe recorded his last point.

Jágr recorded no goals and four assists in only 15 regular-season games this season, but it took him less than two minutes to get on the board tonight. At 1:59, he put a nice finishing touch on a feed from Jakub Strnad, a 32-year-old veteran who is 20 years Jágr’s junior.

Early in the second period, with Kladno now ahead 4-1, Jágr made a pass from his own blueline to the far one to Strnad, who made a nifty one-handed pass to Antonín Melka, who did the rest.

With the outcome rather clear at that point, the game got pretty testy after that, with multiple fisticuffs in the second period. Jágr didn’t involve himself in much of that, of course.

In addition to the goal and assist, Jágr's game stats include 11:26 of ice time, including 46 seconds on the power play, and two shots on goal. He was a plus-2. 

Vsetín – a team from a town of 26,000 near the Slovak border that won five straight Extraliga titles in the late 1990s – even being in this series is an interesting story of its own. After its heydey, the team went back into obscurity, but it is nonetheless so popular that its home games for this series have been moved to the 7700-seat arena in Brno, which is where the series now shifts.

Stay tuned to see if the ageless one makes another appearance.