Ovechkin's masterpiece goal, Kuznetsov's two passes, Kucherov's series and Varlamov's 31 saves: how the Russians became the stars of the day in the NHL

Ovechkin's pursuit of Jagr

The next game day of the NHL regular season was remembered by a number of tense confrontations, one of which took place in the US capital. In crisis, Washington hosted Winnipeg and risked losing a place in the top 5 of the Eastern Conference. In the last six meetings, Peter Laviolette's wards suffered five defeats, and another failure provided Toronto and Pittsburgh with excellent chances to beat the competition. But the Russian leaders of the "capital" did not agree with this, whose efforts in many ways helped them celebrate the victory.

The hosts started very poorly, having conceded two unanswered goals by the third minute, but quickly managed to restore parity. First, Alexander Ovechkin broke through to the gates of Winnipeg, played a “two” with Garnet Hathaway and reduced the backlog with a powerful wrist throw. Local commentators were quick to note the American's spectacular pass, but Evgeny Kuznetsov's translation turned out to be truly luxurious. It was the Russian who picked up the puck in his zone and performed an accurate pass to the border of the blue line.

Thanks to this, Ovechkin not only scored in the third game in a row and hit the Jets for the 50th time, but also took another step towards leadership in the list of snipers in the history of the NHL.

Alexander scored the 757th puck and approached Jaromir Jagr, who occupies the third line, at a distance of nine goals.

Among other things, the Russian bypassed the American Michael Modano and went to a clean 24th place in terms of career points.

Speaking of this season, a goal against Winnipeg helped Ovechkin lead both the sniper and scorer races.

Now he has 55 (27 + 28) points - one more than Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl (26 + 28).

Next are the German’s partner in the Oilers Connor McDavid (19 + 34) and Florida forward Jonathan Huberdo (15 + 38).

True, they all played fewer matches.

On this, the exploits of the captain of "Washington" ended, but his compatriots supported his initiative.

Already at the beginning of the second period, Dmitry Orlov received a pass not far from the blue line and flashed Connor Hellebak with a luxurious throw.

He also participated in the scoring combination in overtime.

By this time, the teams managed to exchange accurate shots, and Tom Wilson recorded the winning one at his own expense.

Moreover, Kuznetsov again played the most important role.

The Russian striker drove across the entire court, dealt with the defender with a spectacular feint and rolled the puck exactly on the hook to the Canadian.

“I was hoping, to be honest, that Kuzya would do everything himself.

But I just tried to give him more ice space.

He scored a very good move, and I knew that he would look for me when he broke through to the gate, ”the NHL press service quotes Wilson.

Like Ovechkin, Kuznetsov extended his hitting streak to five games.

At the moment, the striker has 39 (12 + 27) points in his assets in 37 meetings and, in terms of the number of points on average per game, is on a record schedule for himself.

He showed comparable performance only once in his career - in the 2017/18 season (83 points in 79 matches).

And that was the year the Capitals won the Stanley Cup.

The phenomenal form of Kucherov and the Svechnikov series

The Tampa Bay hockey players also had to organize a comeback.

By the middle of the second period, they were losing to Los Angeles with a score of 1: 2, but in the remaining time they hit the opponent's goal five times.

At the same time, they themselves missed only twice, for which we should thank Andrei Vasilevsky.

The Russian goalkeeper scored 32 saves and strengthened the advantage in terms of the number of wins in the season.

He has 23 of those.

However, the main stars of the meeting were Viktor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov.

For two, they organized three of the six Lightning goals, and on two occasions they assisted each other.

In the 34th minute, the Swede found a partner in the left face-off circle and helped him score in the majority, and in the middle of the final period, the Russian returned the favor.

The forward won the fight at the boards and rolled out a pass to the defender.

Tom had only to "shoot" the goalkeeper.

As a result, Tampa Bay won a landslide victory and caught up with the leader of the Eastern Conference - Florida, and Kucherov continued to amaze with his amazing form.

The Russian only returned to action on January 6 after a serious injury and had already managed to score 11 (4 + 7) points.

During this period, only Brad Marchand (9 + 4) from Boston and partners in Colorado - Mikko Rantanen (5 + 8) and Nathan McKinnon (6 + 6) have more.

Against their background, the performance of Andrey Svechnikov does not look so impressive, but the young Russian also has something to brag about. In the last two games, he was not invariably marked by two scoring actions. First, he twice assisted partners in the confrontation with Vancouver, and then took part in the defeat of Boston. In the seventh minute, he found Esperi Kotkaniemi on the “patch”, and in the middle of the third period he himself upset Linus Ulmark.

But not only the Russian forwards became the protagonists of the game day.

Semyon Varlamov was recognized as the second star of the match with Philadelphia.

The Islanders goalkeeper rescued his partners 31 times, and less than a minute before the end of the second segment, he performed a small miracle.

After a long-range shot by Rasmus Ristolainen, the puck leaked between the goalkeeper's pads, but he managed to orient himself and managed to cover it with a trap right on the goal line.

Varlamov continued to save and at the end of regular time ended in a draw, he did not make an exception in the shootout.

None of the Flyers' nine hockey players managed to cope with the Russian, including team captain Claude Giroud and Ivan Provorov.

Wards Barry Trotz supported their goalkeeper and forced the victory.

Decisive was the exact throw of Oliver Wahlström.

“Yeah, I haven’t been in that situation for a long time.

Today was a very tense moment, too many shootouts ... But I'm glad that we won in the end ... It seemed to me that luck was on my side a couple of times.

The opponent did not hit the goal.

But I had pretty good tactics for a shootout, and in the end everything worked out great, ”said Varlamov.

He praised the goalkeeper and mentor of the team from New York.

Trotz highly appreciated the performance of the Russian and admitted that he was greatly appreciated in the team.

“Today Varlamov showed an outstanding game.

Of course, both goalies played really well during the shootout.

The meeting turned out to be equal.

Both teams created chances and generally performed well.

Varlamov is one of those guys on the team that everyone loves.

Everyone wants to see such players in their team.

Varlamov is a great teammate and a true professional.

I know that he really wanted to win this victory, and the rest of the guys wanted to help him do it.

All the guys want to play not only for themselves, but also for their favorite teammates and good people.

Of course, Varlamov fits both of these categories, ”said the coach.