Panarin's performance, Shesterkin's record and Ovechkin's annoyance: how the Russians spent the second matches of the series in the NHL playoffs

"In the playoffs, let's talk about the team"

The first meeting between the Rangers and Pittsburgh in the playoff series turned out to be incredibly tense.

The Penguins were trailing 0-2, but managed to move the matter into overtime, where they finally put the squeeze on the opponent.

Evgeni Malkin scored the decisive goal.

But the positive emotions from the victory were overshadowed by the fact that goalkeeper Casey Desmith, who himself replaced the team's main goalkeeper Tristan Jerry, was injured.

So half of the game at the last frontier was played by Louis Domingue, who did not often have a chance to prove himself this season.

It was he who had to go out in the starting lineup and in the second quarterfinals - the injuries of teammates turned out to be serious. 

However, the problems of the opponent did not bother the Rangers at all.

The team played another home match and simply could not fail again in front of their fans.

Once again, one of the most active on the ice was Artemy Panarin.

In the previous confrontation, he did not succeed at all.

Perhaps this was due to the fact that the striker was in the squad after a short break caused by an injury.

Already in the seventh minute, the Russian helped his team to take the lead.

Once alone in the patch, he accurately sent the puck under impact in touch with Andrew Kopp, who did not miss.

But Panarin did not act without mistakes this time, two minutes later he did not play very well in the middle zone and allowed Pittsburgh to organize a counterattack.

Guests took advantage of such a gift and equalized the score. 

In the second period, Artemy was again in the spotlight.

The hosts almost immediately earned the majority, John Marino received two minutes of penalty.

The Rangers staged a real assault on the gates of Domingue and eventually achieved what they wanted.

Ryan Strome led the team forward, and Panarin chalked up another effective action.

At the end of the twenty-minute period, the rivals again exchanged goals.

First, Chris Kreider scored, and then Sidney Crosby scored the 70th goal of his career in the NHL playoffs.

The last period was really hot.

The guests made 16 shots on goal by Igor Shesterkin, but he coped with all of them.

And at a press conference, when he was asked if he was tired of fighting back, he joked: “I feel great, we always work out so much in training.

So, nothing new."

Domingue, in turn, could not boast of such reliability.

Panarin's goal largely influenced the course of the meeting, but it was rather accidental.

The Russian made a cross for a nickel, but the puck hit the guests' defender Mike Matheson and ricocheted off his leg into the Pittsburgh goal.

And the final score was set by Frank Vatrano. 

Artemy scored three points in the match and now he has 31 (11+20) effective action in the NHL playoffs.

In the list of the best Russian scorers in the history of the Stanley Cup, he managed to get around Ilya Kovalchuk (28), Vyacheslav Fetisov (28) and Sergei Berezin (30).

The Rangers forward ranks 24th in this indicator. 

After the game, the striker preferred not to talk about his records: “We showed ourselves on a worthy side, a good first step, we will continue to increase momentum.

I like to talk about myself, but in the playoffs it's better to talk about the team.

As for the goal, I saw the opening of Jacob Trub, I gave him the puck and hit the opponent’s skate, ”explained Panarin.

In the end, an unpleasant episode occurred with Shesterkin, who ended up on the ice after a collision with Pittsburgh forward Jeff Carter.

This situation even provoked a brawl: the Rangers hockey players went to defend their goalkeeper.

But, fortunately for the hosts, everything ended well for the Russian and after the meeting he was in high spirits.

“I feel great, I just landed badly, a normal game moment,” Shesterkin commented on the collision.

Igor also entered the history of the NHL.

The Russian has already made 118 saves in the playoffs and became the first goaltender to save more than 100 shots in the first two Stanley Cup games.

The previous record was held by Jean-Sebastian Giguere of Anaheim and Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo.

They at one time were able to beat off 97 goals. 

In the shadow of his compatriots was Evgeni Malkin.

Forward “Pittsburgh” spent more than 18 minutes on the ice with a utility index of minus one.  

"Forget and move on"

"Washington" that evening was not like himself.

The first guest meeting with the "Florida" was completely left to the wards of Peter Laviolette.

The Capitals played stronger, and Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov were expected to be in the spotlight.

The return match hockey players "Capitals" began confidently.

They made 11 shots on goal by Sergei Bobrovsky, but he acted reliably, and the end of the first period completely knocked the team off balance.

With a difference of one and a half minutes, Aaron Ekblad and Alexander Barkov scored on the puck.

It seemed that this would not break the “Washington”.

Immediately after the break, the guests managed to realize the majority after the removal of Anton Lundell.

Ovechkin got the puck in the center of the zone, was already ready to throw, but instead he suddenly gave a pass to Niklas Beckström.

The Swede, it seems, also did not expect a gift from the Russian, so he hesitated a bit, however, he still managed to send a projectile into the goal.  

However, this goal did not help turn the tide of the meeting.

On the contrary, the Florida hockey players understood that going to Washington, losing in the 0-2 series was not the best deal, and they actively went forward.

Before the siren for the second break, they scored three more times.  

As a result, Ilya Samsonov acted at the gate instead of Vitek Vanechek in the last twenty minutes.

The Russian had a hard time, the Capitals earned three deletions.

Unlike his partner, the goalkeeper repelled 17 shots and did not miss a single puck.

But this did not inspire the team.

In attack, Ovechkin's team simply quit playing, disturbing Sergei Bobrovsky only three times.  

As Laviolette admitted after the meeting, in the end, "Washington" fell apart and did not show anything.

Ovechkin, in turn, noted the Florida goalkeeper's saves and expressed the hope that such a failure would not happen again at home.

“We had good chances, but the opponent’s goalkeeper parried my shots, and I didn’t manage to play on the rebound.

We knew that the series would be hard and long.

Now the score is 1-1, and I think now the advantage is on our side, since the next game is at home.

We will perform at the home arena, in front of our fans.

Now there's nothing you can do, you have to forget and move on.

And it doesn't matter what the score is - 0:1 or 0:10 - a defeat is a defeat.

In comparison, they were two completely different games.

Rebounds, mistakes we made - it was a completely different match, ”said the Russian at a press conference.