Kucherov’s record-breaking series
Tampa Bay Lightning fans have recently added cause for concern. Besides the fact that the team lost the last four matches and became one of the worst in the majority draw, it also lost Stephen Stamkos for a long time. On March 2, he will have an operation that will take so long to recover that there is a risk of missing the first round of the Stanley Cup.
But in the match against Calgary Flames, Tampa's affairs began to improve. After rearrangements in the composition, Mikhail Sergachev ended up in the special brigade of the majority instead of Victor Hedman, and this decision of the coaching staff immediately yielded results. Already in the 14th minute, a club from Florida opened an account - Tyler Johnson corrected the puck after a shot by Sergachev, and she flew into the goal. Nikita Kucherov became the second author of the assist.
Closer to the middle of the second period, history repeated itself. Ondrej Chambers realized the majority, and the Russian duo assisted him. Kucherov scored 80th point for the season and became the sixth Russian to whom this difficult mark was submitted. At the same time, the striker is pleased with such a performance for the fourth season in a row, which, apart from him, only Alexander Ovechkin and Pavel Datsyuk sought.
At the same time, Kucherov extended his points series to 19 matches, which began on January 14th. During this time, he scored 31 points for performance. In theory, it was supposed to be a new club record - the old one belongs to Stamkos and has 18 games. However, officially, a new achievement will still not be counted. Due to injury, Kucherov missed one match against the Edmonton Oilers, so the formally productive series currently has only seven games.
The next goal, “Tampa” again issued in unequal compositions, only this time in the minority - Yanni Gourd scored. It seemed that this match could be considered won, but unexpectedly, Andrey Vasilevsky missed two goals in 52 seconds, and not the most difficult ones. Perhaps the lack of tone affected - “Calgary” almost never threw the whole match. But Vasilevsky’s partners immediately regained the advantage in two goals. In the end, the Russian still missed another puck, but this happened after removing his teammate and removing the goalkeeper from the Flames. In total, he made 18 saves.
Almost hat-trick Anisimova
Artyom Anisimov became the protagonist of the meeting between the Ottawa Senators and the Detroit Red Wings, two of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. The attacker infrequently replenishes his scorer, but this time for the first time in his Enkhael career he shot ten shots on goal, which gave the result.
By the middle of the match, “Ottawa” was losing on its ice with a score of 0: 2. After that, Detroit earned two deletions in a row, and Anisimov punished the opponents for this with a throw from the right circle. In the third period, the Russian hockey player pulled his team forward when Jace Gavrilyuk gave a wonderful pass to the empty net.
These feats of Anisimov were not enough to win. After the removal of Nikita Zaitsev, the guests were able to equalize and transfer the match to overtime. Although Detroit was in the minority at this time, the winner had to be determined in a series of shoot-outs. And here Anisimov showed himself again. He became the only one who realized his throw, and brought the “Ottawa” victory, which was the second consecutive for the team.
Gusev's magic transmission
Nikita Gusev in the match with the Los Angeles Kings extended his productive series to five games and made it incredibly beautiful. Already in the eighth minute of the away meeting, he, together with Esper Bratt, organized a terrific goal, which caused bewilderment of the opponents. The Swedish striker gave the puck to Gusev near the left face-off circle and ran to the far post. The Russian, meanwhile, drove through the entire zone, as if not noticing the Los Angeles players, and returned the puck to his partner, who shot Jonathan Quick with one touch.
However, Quick did not miss a single goal anymore, making 32 saves. His counterpart Mackenzie Blackwood had even more salvations - as many as 36. However, the puck went to his goal twice. The match ended in overtime, so “New Jersey” earned points for the fifth time in a row. However, the team’s lag behind the playoffs is too large, and Gusev is unlikely to be able to fight for the Stanley Cup this season.
Goal anniversary of Guryanov
Denis Guryanov continues to delight with his assists accomplishments. Forward “Dallas Stars” distinguished himself in the third match in a row - this time he abandoned the current holder of the Stanley Cup “St. Louis Blues”. At the 36th minute he grabbed the puck in his area, ran across the entire field faster than the defenders and powerfully clicked on goal. Goalkeeper Jake Allen didn’t even react to the throw of the Russian, who scored his 20th goal for the season. According to this indicator, Guryanov beat Evgeni Kuznetsov.
This goal almost became a salvation for Dallas. The guests reduced the score to 2: 3 and then transferred the game to overtime when they replaced goalkeeper Anton Khudobin with a field player. During the match, he made 28 saves, but in the shoot-out series he could not cope with one shot, and this led to the defeat of the club from Texas. Alexander Radulov, who made the last attempt, could rectify the situation, but never outplayed Allen.