A play-off game in Russia has set a record for the longest match in Kontinental Hockey League history.

Local time in Moscow was 1.35am when Mika Niemi scored to give Jokerit Helsinki a 2-1 victory against CSKA Moscow – after two hours, 22 minutes and nine seconds of action.

The previous record in the KHL was two hours, six minutes and 14 seconds, set in a game between Lev Praha and Donbass Donetsk in 2014.

Game five of the KHL’s Western Conference semi-final between Russian team CSKA and their Finnish opponents Jokerit was level at 1-1 after 60 minutes of regulation.

There are no penalty shootouts in the KHL play-offs, with drawn games continuing in 20-minute periods until one team scores.

And it took until the fifth extra period for that goal to arrive. Niemi’s strike kept the series alive, with the teams set to face off again in game six in Helsinki on Saturday. CSKA lead the best-of-seven contest 3-2.

The KHL is widely considered the second biggest professional ice hockey league in the world, behind the NHL, and involves teams from Belarus, China, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia and Slovakia.

Thursday’s game still fell short of the longest ice hockey match of all time, with last year’s Norweigan play-off clash between the Storhamar Dragons and the Sparta Warriors lasting three hours, 37 minutes and 14 seconds before a goal was scored in the eighth period of overtime.