Pavel Buchnevich scored the second hat-trick in his career in NHL. However, the Russian superstar “St. Louis Blues” is unlikely to feel joy from this.
“St. Louis” and “Minnesota” accustomed spectators and fans to sparkling hockey in every sense in their head-to-head matches. Even in the last draw of the NHL playoffs, the rivals staged a real massacre, and in the current championship they continued to sort things out with raised voices. Today the temperature has reached its maximum. In a match in which nothing was decided in principle for either, so many events happened that the impressions will last for the rest of the regular season.
During the preparation of the announcement for the game, the employees of the Blues media service clearly suspected something, since they put a collage with Pavel Buchnevich and Ryan Hartman on the title photo for the corresponding article. It was they who became the two main stars of the meeting, if we talk exclusively about hockey.
Hartman started the scoring extravaganza in the performance of the Minnesota, assisting Joel Eriksson Ek, and then scoring a double. And although 3 points (2 + 1) against the backdrop of eight Wild goals does not look so colorful, but Hartman himself has done a lot of useful work.
Pavel Buchnevich also performed a spectacular show. Russian forward «Blues» designed his second hat-trick in his career in the NHL. The first happened back on April 17, 2021, when Pavel celebrated his 26th birthday in a Rangers jersey. “This is the best birthday present for yourself. It’s a pity that this holiday is only once a year,” Buchnevich said then. However, he had to wait almost exactly 2 years for the next hat-trick.
The Russian scored a puck in each of the periods. It was he who opened the scoring in the match, then he had to restore the status quo, and at the end of the meeting the result was determined with a solid margin for Minnesota, because the third goal of Buchnevich (he is also the fifth for St. Louis) did not decide anything.< br>
Pavel himself understood this, who defiantly did not show joy and tried to do everything possible for a comeback.The Blues forward became the seventh Russian player in the current NHL season who scored 3 goals or more in one game:
- Andrey Svechnikov (twice against Edmonton);
- Andrey Kuzmenko (against Anaheim);
- Alexander Ovechkin (twice, against Chicago and Montreal);
- Kirill Marchenko (in the match against Carolina);
- Artemy Panarin (made poker in the match against Carolina);
- Pavel Buchnevich (against Minnesota).
< li class="article__list-item">Kirill Kaprizov (against Columbus);
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But, unfortunately or fortunately, there was a non-hockey share in the last match. After Ryan Hartman's goal set the Wild 5-4, St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington went nuts. The Canadian is known for his quick-tempered and difficult character, he quite regularly allows himself to enter into conflicts and skirmishes with opponents. But today he outdid himself and knocked the Minnesota forward off his feet with a single jab after he accidentally hit Jordan while celebrating a goal. Even Marc-Andre Fleury reacted to the situation, baring his fists and dropping his mask to fight with an opponent. The judges were against it.
“To be honest, I respect Ryan. He plays hard and that’s not a problem for me. A possible fight with Fleury? nothing but respect for him. Fleury is a legendary goalkeeper,» Binnington said after the match, which he naturally watched in the dressing room.
Big match score 8:5 is icing on the cake . For “Minnesota” this is only the seventh time when the team from St. Paul scored 8 goals. And only the outcome of the confrontation did not affect anything: the “savages” feel comfortable in the top 4 of the Western Conference, and the “Blues” are unlikely to count on getting into the playoffs.