A spectacular start: Kucherov's three points helped Tampa defeat Montreal in the first leg of the Stanley Cup final

Last year's Stanley Cup winner Tampa Bay Lightning kicked off their title defense with a landslide victory.

In the first match of the final series, John Cooper's charges at home beat the Montreal Canadiens with a score of 5: 1.

The main hero of the meeting was the Russian striker of the hosts Nikita Kucherov.

The confrontation between the Americans and Canadians in the NHL is considered classic, so the meeting aroused increased interest.

Intrigues were added by the fact that the last time the Canadian team reached the final 10 years ago, and won the main trophy even earlier - in 1993 it was Montreal that won the Stanley Cup.

All fans were eagerly awaiting the start of the series, even the heads of two states were no exception.

For example, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered US President Joe Biden to make a friendly bet, to which he agreed.

You're on pal.

#GoBoltshttps: //t.co/jOhA7IB2bE

- President Biden (@POTUS) June 29, 2021

The mood of the opponents was felt from the very first seconds of the match: the teams demonstrated open hockey without regard to defense and naturally exchanged dangerous throws.

However, in the 6th minute, “Tampa” still managed to open an account.

Erik Cernak arrived in time at the gate of Carey Price and substituted his club for the transfer of Ondřej Chamber.

Then the game calmed down a little, and although the owners had the initiative to force events, they were clearly in no hurry.

At the beginning of the second period, the Lightning doubled the lead and continued to dominate on the ice, although the Canadians did not intend to give up and put pressure on the opponent.

Their efforts paid off in the 38th minute when Ben Shiro cut the gap.

And in this episode, the owners were accompanied by fortune: after a long-range throw from the defender, the puck bounced off two Tampa hockey players and only after that flew into the net.

However, in the final period, luck turned away from the Montreal defender.

Mikhail Sergachev from the middle zone found Kucherov with a pass, and he threw the outer side of the club onto a patch.

Shiro first tried to interrupt the transmission with his hand, but he did it so unsuccessfully that Ondřej Chamber had no difficulty in transporting it into the gate from less than a meter away.

However, after numerous views, it became clear that the Czech did not have time to touch the puck, and it flew into the goal from the stick of all that de Chiro.

“My merit in that goal is small: I just threw the puck at the goal in the hope that something would happen there.

A successful rebound for us did take place there, although at first I was sure that Chambers had abandoned it.

Whoever the goal is, this proves once again that we need to more often throw towards the goal and create traffic there, "Kucherov commented on the episode.

And already in the middle of the third period, the Russian forward scored a goal, the authorship of which did not raise questions. After winning the throw-in, Braidan Point gave a pass to the center to the Russian, from where he made a spectacular wrist throw, leaving no chance for Price. And 70 seconds before the final serena, Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, not without the help of the same Kucherov, who laid a magnificent turn, realized the majority.

It is worth noting that the meeting turned out to be rich not only in abandoned goals and dangerous episodes, but also in power techniques.

On account of "Montreal" there were 58, "Tampa" - 57. And one of the most serious clashes occurred in the third 20-minute after the stoppage of the match.

Sergachev and the guest striker Brendan Gallagher staged a scuffle, as a result of which the Canadian fell unsuccessfully, broke his head and left the ice, bleeding.

Fortunately for the defender, the judges did not find his fault in this episode.

Kucherov was named the first star of the match.

The second was Point, who gave three assists, the third - Cernak.

If the Russian was modest in assessing his own actions on the ice, then his teammates were generous with compliments.

“Whatever you want, that puck was thrown by one of the best players in the world.

How many times have we seen this throw away from the face-off circle?

In this playoffs, Cooch plays like a beast.

He is incredibly good now, "Stamkos commented on the second goal of the Russian.

In total, Kucherov has scored 30 points in the current playoffs, seven more than his closest pursuer Point.

The Russian became the sixth hockey player who managed to reach this bar in 19 or fewer meetings over the past 30 years.

In addition, only Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were able to score more points in the playoffs than Kucherov for two seasons in a row.

Kucherov scored more than one point in an NHL playoff match for the 35th time in his career.

According to this indicator, he caught up with his eminent compatriot Alexander Ovechkin, who is in fifth place among active hockey players.

Leadership in this list is kept by the Pittsburgh Pinwins striker Sidney Crosby, who has 63 such matches.

In total, the Russian now has 125 points in the playoffs, thanks to which he climbed to eighth place among the current players, ahead of Boston Bruins striker David Kreichi.

Crosby is also the leader in this list (191 points).

Kucherov's excellent game made him forget that due to injury he missed the entire regular season and joined his teammates only in the playoffs.

And here he had a hard time - knowing what role the forward plays in the team, the rivals tried with all their might to keep him, sometimes resorting to rudeness.

So, in the sixth match of the semifinal series, the hockey player was forced to leave the ice in the 47th second after being stabbed in the back by New York Islanders defender Scott Mayfield.

However, according to Cooper, such episodes only spurred both the Russian himself and his partners.

“When the guys see with what injuries their partners go out on the ice and how they play with them, this cannot but inspire.

At this time of year, if you want to have a chance to win, you must.

So Kuch does it.

I am very glad that today he was rewarded for this.

The final episode is underway.

I assure you that everyone is playing with the beaten, through pain, ”the mentor summed up.

It is worth noting the achievement of Vasilevsky, who has recorded more than one record in the current knockout round.

He came out on top among Russian goalkeepers in the number of victories in the Stanley Cup decisive series, ahead of the former Tampa goalkeeper Nikolai Khabibulin.

Taking into account last year's final with the Dallas Stars, Andrei has already won five meetings and will obviously not stop there.