Hat-trick of Ovechkin, doubles of Kucherov and Kovalchuk, Panarin's winning pass: Russians enchantingly spent a game day in the NHL

Goal revenge Ovechkin

In a home game with the New Jersey Devils, Alexander Ovechkin again met with his strangest fan - Miles Wood. In his youth, the American dreamed about photography with his idol, and when the opportunity arose to go on the same ice with the Washington striker, he got into a fight with him. This time, Wood again behaved very strangely - at the very beginning of the match, the Russian citizen broke his face with a club with blood, while avoiding any punishment from the judges.

Ovechkin severely avenged another impertinence of Wood. Returning from the locker room, he realized the double majority of “Washington” in the 15th minute with a signature click from the left face-off circle. The striker did not stop there - until the end of the period he again made an accurate throw from his favorite point.

This goal became for Ovechkin 30th for the season. The Russian scored so many goals in one regular season for the 15th time in a row that neither Wayne Gretzky nor Gordy Howe succeeded. Thus Ovechkin repeated the records of Jaromir Jagr and Mike Gartner. By the total number of seasons with 30 goals, the captain of Washington shares the second place with Jagr, and Gartner is only two productive seasons.

However, during the match, Ovechkin had no time to rejoice at his achievements - at the beginning of the third period the Devils reduced the gap to a minimum, and Blake Coleman scored the second goal for Ilya Samsonova in the minority. Although the “Washington” attacked calmer in the last third of the match, the team brought the matter to victory, and Ovechkin put an end to his third goal - 5: 2. He scored the 25th hat-trick for his career and climbed to ninth in their number in league history, sharing it with Sai Denenny.

“This can’t be boring, but without a team and partners I would never have reached such milestones. This is a team achievement, although I won’t lie, it’s pretty cool, ”said Ovechkin after the game.

In total, after defeating New Jersey, Ovechkin won 689 goals in his career. He is inferior to just one puck Mario Lemieux, three to Steve Aizerman and five to Mark Messier. In the near future, the Russian will be able to rise to eighth line in the list of the best NHL snipers. True, due to the missing of the Match of the Stars Ovechkin will be disqualified for one game, which will be a meeting with the Montreal Canadiens.

For Samsonov, the match with New Jersey was also special. The young goalkeeper of Washington made 32 saves and won the ninth game in a row. He surpassed the club record for novice goalkeepers set by Bob Mason back in 1985. Throughout the NHL, Samsonov became the tenth goalkeeper to win so many consecutive matches in his first season.

The first take of Kovalchuk

Shockingly spent a game day and Ilya Kovalchuk as part of "Montreal". Canadians on the road met with the Philadelphia Flyers. At the end of the first period, the teams exchanged goals in 18 seconds, and almost immediately after the break the guests earned a majority. It was realized by Kovalchuk, having thrown the puck into an empty corner.

This puck became the 438th striker for his career and allowed him to beat Pavel Bure in the list of the best Russian snipers. Kovalchuk also rose to third place in the national ranking for most goals abandoned. He, like Sergei Fedorov, 144 times punished opponents for breaking the rules.

After another 11 seconds, Kovalchuk's teammate Arturi Lehtonen increased the lead of the Canadiens to two goals. This could not be enough to win - at any moment goalkeeper Corey Price, who made 40 saves in the end, could have made a mistake. All questions about the winner of the meeting were removed by the same Kovalchuk. Nine minutes before the final siren, the Russian put in a double and scored the seventh point in seven games for Montreal.

“Our goal is to get into the playoffs. We are going to do this, no one gives up. I’m just one of the soldiers, so I’ll go out on the ice and help my team win the matches, ”the Russian said after the game.

Panarin and Georgiev conquered New York

In the first period of the New York derby on the ice as if there was only one team. “Islanders” at home threw the “Rangers” with an incredible margin of 22: 6. However, on the scoreboard for the break, the mean numbers 1: 0 were on. Goalkeeper Alexander Georgiev did everything he could to ensure that such an assault at the beginning of the match did not lead to very sad consequences.

21 saves of the Russian goalkeeper, who left the starting lineup instead of Henrik Lundqvist and Ilya Shesterkin, gave a good mood to the Rangers. In the future, the game leveled off, and with it the score - until the last minute, overtime seemed inevitable.

But the Islanders played out the match in the minority, and rivals took advantage of this. With the transfer of Artemy Panarin, Chris Krider scored the winning puck 25 seconds before the siren. The Russian striker scored points in the fifth match in a row and climbed to third place in the list of top scorers of the season, catching up with Nathan McKinnon. In total, Panarin has 68 points in 46 matches of the season.

Kucherov’s double without victory

Last night, Tampa Bay Lightning striker Nikita Kucherov also marked with two goals. However, his efforts were not enough to win the away match against Minnesota Wild, which interrupted a series of four defeats - 2: 3.

The Russian striker scored the first goal after Mikhail Sergachev in the 28th minute, equalizing the score. But quite a bit of time passed, and two goals were visited at the Tampa goal, which was not defended by Andrei Vasilevsky. Guests from Florida had almost half an hour to rectify the situation, but no one but Kucherov was able to excel. The Russians abandoned the majority in the 50th minute and scored the 20th goal for the season for the sixth time in a career.

Different goals of Nichushkin, Dadonov and Namestnikov

Valery Nichushkin interrupted his eight-goal series without goals for the Colorado Avalanche. In the match against San Jose Sharks, he distinguished himself in the first shift - he went great on the starboard side, traveled around the defender and beat the goalkeeper. The goal at the 45th second turned out to be victorious in the end - none of the guests scored, and Nichushkin's partners scored three more goals.

The Florida Panthers striker Evgeni Dadonov scored the 20th goal for the season. He also opened an account in a match with the Los Angeles Kings, distinguishing himself in the majority in the seventh minute. The Russian has scored eight goals in the last 12 matches and continues to be the team's best sniper.

Vladislav Namestnikov also recorded a goal at his own expense in the match between the Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights. The Russian striker scored one of his five shots and scored points for the first time in 11 matches. But by the time when the Vice-Presidents still brought the puck into the gates of others, his team was already losing with a score of 0: 3 and failed to close the gap (2: 4).