Lightning rematch: Kucherov's three assists took Tampa Bay to the second round of the Stanley Cup

Kucherov's assistant hat-trick and Gavrikov's two assists

The performance of the Tampa Bay Lightning traditionally arouses increased interest among Russian fans, as the team includes three Russian legionnaires: goalkeeper Andrey Vasilevsky, defender Mikhail Sergachev and, of course, the best scorer of the 2018/19 NHL regular season Nikita Kucherov. And this season the team of John Cooper is considered by some experts as one of the contenders for victory in the Stanley Cup.

However, already in the first round of the playoffs, Tampa had to face a rather unpleasant rival for themselves - Columbus. The fact is that last season, at the same stage of the Stanley Cup, the Lightning suffered a humiliating defeat to the Blue Jackets, losing a dry run - 0: 4.

A year later, Kucherov's team did everything to take revenge. By the fifth meeting of the series "Tampa" was leading - 3: 1. Thus, to reach the semifinals of the Eastern Conference, she had only one step to take.

And at first it seemed that Cooper's wards would not have any problems with this. At the start of the first period, they scored two unanswered goals in 61 seconds and secured a comfortable score advantage. Tyler Johnson and Blake Coleman distinguished themselves.

However, the opponent did not think to give up and soon won back one goal through the efforts of Nick Foligno. In the second 20-minute, Columbus managed to turn the tide of the meeting. The gate of Vasilevsky was struck first by Kevin Stenlund, and at the end of the playing segment - by Alexander Vennberg, who was assisted by Vladislav Gavrikov.

In the middle of the third period, the Russian defender took part in another scored puck, while Columbus took the lead with a score of 4: 2.

And at that moment, when it seemed that Tampa would still have to play the sixth match of the series, Kucherov got down to business. First, he helped Kevin Shattenkirk reduce the backlog to a minimum. And 98 seconds before the end of normal time, the puck, after a combination involving Kucherov and Braden Point, flew into the net from Anthony Cirelli's skate. The referees watched the replay of the Canadian kicked, but in the end they counted a goal, and soon the game went into overtime.

In the 66th minute of the match, Cooper's wards snatched the victory. “Columbus” unsuccessfully came out of defense and literally presented the puck to the opponent. This was taken advantage of by Kucherov, who brought Point to the decisive shot. It is curious that in the first match of the series, whose fate was also decided in overtime, the decisive puck from Kucherov's transfer was also scored by Point.

Thus, Nikita scored an assistant hat-trick and scored nine points in the current Stanley Cup (2 + 7). In the team's scorers' race, he is second only to Point (5 + 5). Along the way, the Russian, who spent more than 20 minutes on the ice with a +2 utility, became the most productive Tampa hockey player in the NHL playoffs in history. He has 69 points, and according to this indicator Kucherov bypassed Martin St. Louis.

At the same time, even in the second period of the match, the forward made the domestic fans get nervous. He fell under a tough forceful reception by Pierre-Luc Dubois and hit his head on the side, but escaped serious injury.

Sergachev took an active part in the decisive victory over Columbus (19:51 on the ice with a “+1” rating) and Vasilevsky (37 reflected shots out of 41). Gavrikov, in spite of two assists, ended the meeting with a negative indicator of utility ("-2").

John Cooper, after the end of the match, did not hide his joy that his players managed to take a convincing revenge from Columbus last season. Waiting for the final siren, the coach shook hands with the opponent's goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo and began to shake his fist victoriously.

“I had only 422 days to think it over, but who counted those days, right? It's still funny how the hockey gods behave: go through what we went through last year, overcome so many doubts about everything we did, survive this pause, digest the new rules with this overseeding - and still get into rivals the same command! It is easy now, sitting here, to say how good it is that we met with them again, but I am really glad that this happened, and that we achieved such a result, ”the official website of the NHL quotes the specialist.

In turn, Blue Jackets mentor John Tortorella was so upset by the offensive defeat that he left the audience after the second question from journalists at a press conference, which took place in video format.

Zadorov's puck and Provorov's goal pass

In the West, the Colorado Avalanche has also made it to the conference playoff semifinals. It took the team of Nikita Zadorov and Valery Nichushkin five matches to break the resistance of Arizona.

In the reporting meeting, Jared Bednar's charges sent seven goals to the Coyotes' goal, and conceded only one. The main character among the winners was Nathan McKinon, who scored four points for performance (2 + 2). This "catch" allowed the Canadian to break into the leaders of the Stanley Cup scorers' race with 13 points (4 + 9).

And at the end of the second period, Zadorov also managed to excel. The defender successfully put his stick on the spot for McKinon's throw and scored the first point for performance in the current playoffs.

In general, Zadorov spent almost 19 minutes on the ice with zero utility. Nichushkin has a similar result, who played just over 16 minutes.

In another match of the game of the day, the Montreal Canadiens narrowed the gap in the series with the Philadelphia Flyers to a minimum, winning the fifth meeting with a score of 5: 3.

As part of the Canadian team, Yoel Armia scored a double, Brendan Gallagher, Nick Suzuki and Phillip Dano scored one goal each. Alain Vigno's charges responded with goals from Jacob Voracek and Joel Farabi. Russian Ivan Provorov managed to score the third point for performance in the current playoffs, taking part in the first scoring attack of Philadelphia.

At the same time, the fans will remember the match not only for the large number of abandoned pucks, but also for the massive brawl that took place before the final siren. Its instigator was the Flyers striker Sean Couturier, who pushed Arturi Lehkonen, who pounced on the offender with his fists. The rest of the hockey players joined the scuffle, as a result of which Couturier, Vorachek and Shea Weber received a 10-minute penalty.

Russian St. Louis Blues striker Ivan Barbashev returned to the ice after having a baby and finished the fifth quarterfinal match of the Western Conference with the Vancouver Canucks with a score of +1. However, his team was defeated with a score of 3: 4 and is now inferior in the series - 2: 3.