Artemy Panarin set two historical records in one fell swoop, Alexander Ovechkin knocked down two Russians with power moves at once and continues to chase Wayne Gretzky, Andrei Svechnikov was deprived of a long-awaited goal, Valery Nichushkin led Colorado to a crazy comeback, and Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev continue to carry Tampa on their shoulders. About the great successes of Russian stars in the next game day of the National Hockey League – in the Sports review.
None of the Russians could do this. Panarin is now as cool as GretzkyThe meeting between the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils attracted increased attention for several reasons. Firstly, the matches between the Blues and the Devils are fundamental in themselves, and the high-profile outcome of their confrontation in the last playoffs only heated up the situation for the first head-to-head game of the new season. Secondly, Igor Shesterkin returned to the lineup after an injury. The Russian goalkeeper, by the way, with his phrase “Did the Devils win the Stanley Cup? No? Well then, there’s nothing to talk about what happened last season, it doesn’t matter” in a dialogue with reporters on the eve of the match, further fueled interest in the battle at the Prudential Arena -center”. Finally, the main focus was Artemi Panarin, who continues to tear the entire NHL to pieces.
The match met all expectations in terms of the result and the course of the game. Perhaps only the Devils fans were dissatisfied, whose team suffered a defeat and suffered further personnel losses: Tomas Nosek could not withstand the blow after a powerful hit by Jacob Trouba and ended the game early. The teams scored eight goals between them, five of which were scored by the Rangers. The Blueshirts opened the scoring and took the lead twice, but the Devils managed to come back both times and then took a step towards a strong-willed victory. But she was not allowed to happen. The guests from New York scored three goals at the end of the third period and extended their winning streak. Igor Shesterkin put a lot of effort into this and made 30 saves out of 33 shots. There could have been a little more of them, if not for the first two offensive goals, when the puck treacherously flew into the net of the Russian goalkeeper's possession.
But we are here for Artemi Panarin. The Russian has unimaginably gained points in every match since the start of the regular season, and today’s game was no exception in this regard. But unique – yes. Khlebushek scored a double and, having extended the scoring streak from the beginning of the regular season to 15 games in a row, set two new records at once: club and Russian. Artemy became the first Russian player in NHL history to score points in 15 consecutive games from the start of the season; the forward broke Dmitry Kvartalnov’s record, which stood for about 30 years.
Panarin also surpassed Rod Gilbert's half-century and set a new record in Rangers history. Moreover, if we take into account the scoring streaks simply during the regular season, then Panarin among the club’s players in the entire history of the franchise has already climbed to third place, where he is placed along with Walt Poddubny, Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky himself. All of them, at different times while playing for the Rangers during the championship, scored points in 15 games in a row (although not from the start of the season). If Panarin extends his current streak by two more matches, he will repeat the absolute franchise record (17).
Ovechkin was literally given a goal, it was stolen from Svechnikov While the Rangers and Devils were sorting out their relationship, hoping to find a second youth The Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins were tested by some of the NHL's most daring teams, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes, respectively. It turned out with varying degrees of success.
“Washington,” for example, somehow coped with the pressure from the “uniforms” and inflicted their eighth defeat in the championship in a row. But the Caps were hardly better than the Blue Jackets. “Columbus” surpassed the opponent in shots on target in all three periods, and the club’s young “bandits” felt confident in the power struggle. The same Kirill Marchenko and Yegor Chinakhov with dignity took on Alexander Ovechkin’s power attack.
But in hockey, everything is decided not by the number of shots, but by their accuracy along with the details. Here “Washington” surpassed “Columbus”, scoring four goals. One of them is on the account of Alexander Ovechkin. The Russian goalscorer immediately punished his opponent for a positional mistake and became one more step closer to Wayne Gretzky's great record. By the way, Ivan Provorov did not leave the ice without a goal. The Russian defender scored for the first time for Columbus, but his efforts were not enough for the team to comeback.
As for Pittsburgh, after the exhausting match with the Devils, the Penguins clearly did not have enough strength to play against Carolina in Raleigh. Sidney Crosby managed to score a double and extended his scoring streak to 11 matches in a row, but his goals in today's game had no effect on its course. The Hurricanes looked more confident and stronger and could win bigger. And the Hurricanes scored not four goals, but five, but the referees canceled one of them. Unfortunately, we were talking about a goal by Andrei Svechnikov, who this season continues to be marked “zero” in the corresponding column. Taking into account the time missed due to a serious injury, Svechnikov’s goalless streak is more than eight months.
Kuch is powerful. The Russian forward continues to save Tampa. The match between the Lightning and the Oilers turned out to be incredibly productive. There is nothing surprising in this, because we met teams with a formidable attack and obvious problems in the goalkeeper and defensive lines. “Tampa” was forced to win back three times during the meeting, the first time immediately from 0:2, received in the 9th minute of the meeting. The real saviors of the Lightning were Russian stars Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev, who probably really missed Andrei Vasilevsky behind them.
Kucherov and Sergachev completely took the spoils of a strong-willed victory into their own hands, which they successfully accomplished. Both scored three points: Nikita scored a double and scored an assist, while Mikhail assisted twice and scored with a most accurate shot into the empty goal from the far side. Kucherov continues to make noise in the lists of the best snipers (13 goals) and scorers (27 points) of the current regular season, and Sergachev has surpassed the 250-point mark in his career in the NHL championships. Edmonton, interestingly, did not stand out in any way during the entire game: Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.
Valery Nichushkin is also trying to pull the whole team out on his shoulders. The Colorado Avalanche forward didn't have the most confident start, but found his groove in November. In the last six games of the championship, Big Val scored 7 points (5+7) – this is more than half of all the Russian’s scoring points for the current regular season. Moreover, Valery’s points (especially goals) carry a very large weight: in three of the four games in which Nichushkin scored a goal, Colorado won.
One of the most striking victories happened today. The Avalanche were losing to the Dallas Stars with a score of 0:3 midway through the second period. Considering how strong Peter DeBoer's team is, few believed in his fiasco. But at the end of the second period, the Avalanche reduced the gap to a minimum, and at the start of the third 20 minutes, Nichushkin restored the status quo. With his help, “Colorado” soon took the lead and instantly consolidated their success. As a result, 6:3 – victory for the Avalanche and the well-deserved title of the first star of the match for the Russian super forward.
All game day results:
- “Ottawa Senators” – “Minnesota Wild” – 2:1 LO
- Philadelphia Flyers – “Vegas Golden Knights” – 4:3 OT
- Nashville Predators – Chicago Blackhawks – 4:2
- Tampa Bay Lightning – Edmonton Oilers – 6:4< /li>
- “Boston Bruins” – “Montreal Canadiens” – 5:2
- “Winnipeg Jets” – “Arizona Coyotes” – 5:2
- Calgary Flames – New York Islanders – 4:5 PB
- Carolina Hurricanes ” – “Pittsburgh Penguins” – 4:2
- “New Jersey Devils” – “New York Rangers” – 3:5
- “Washington Capitals” – “Columbus Blue Jackets” – 4:3
- “Dallas Stars” – “Colorado Avalanche” – 3:6
- “Vancouver Canucks” – “Ciel Kraken” – 3:4
- “Los Angeles Kings” – “St. Louis Blues” — 5:1