Malkin's achievement

On the eve of the match between the Rangers and the Penguins, it was extremely difficult to name a favorite.

Unlike their opponents, Gerard Gallan's wards were still on an impressive streak of seven victories in a row, while Artemy Panarin and Igor Shesterkin regularly demonstrated their highest level.

But this time it didn't work out in their favor.

The striker was active and bothered the opponent's goalkeeper four times, but did not score any effective points, and at times the goalkeeper who worked miracles conceded three times and ended the meeting with an unpresentable percentage of saves (87.5%).

And one of the "culprits" of this can be called Evgeny Malkin, who not only became the author of the first Pittsburgh puck, but also continued to fight for the title of the greatest Russian legionnaire in the NHL.

So far, December has been a super-lucky month for Malkin.

In the previous eight matches, the veteran reminded himself of the best example of his years and scored 12 (2 + 10) points, entering the top ten in terms of scoring.

This not only helped him pass Jake Gunzel to climb to second place among the team's leading scorers, but also helped the Penguins to seven straight wins.

Only the Hurricanes could stop them, having taken the upper hand two days ago thanks to the impenetrable Petr Kochetkov.

And this time, Evgeny again did not slow down and not only extended the successful streak, but also helped the team break the resistance of a direct competitor for a place in the playoffs.

“Pittsburgh” managed to miss already at the 22nd second of the first period and was inferior in the score until the middle of the second, until the defender of the guests, K'Andre Miller, earned a two-minute penalty for blocking.

The star five of the hosts, led by Malkin and Sidney Crosby, came out to play the majority and did their job in less than a minute.

The Canadian otpasoval to the Russian, and he sent the puck to the far corner of the goal with a powerful wrist shot.

Shesterkin was closed by Rickard Rackelle and failed to react in time.

As it turned out later, it was this moment that became a turning point.

Over the next 15 minutes, Mike Sullivan's wards scored twice more, and missed only once.

And although Crosby, who scored and assisted, was recognized as the main star, it was for Malkin that this evening became special.

After all, he not only organized the team's comeback, but also took second place in points among Russians in the NHL.

Malkin scored 1179 (455 + 724) points and caught up in this indicator with the legendary Sergei Fedorov.

True, if the Detroit striker needed to hold 1248 meetings for this, then his compatriot - 235 less.

Yevgeny is inferior only to the unstoppable Alexander Ovechkin (1446), who continues to chase Wayne Gretzky's sniper record.

Kochetkov series

In addition to Malkin, few of the Russian stars managed to productively spend another game day.

Nikita Kucherov failed to help Tampa avoid being crushed by Toronto and get close to Connor McDavid in the scoring race along the way, and Andrey Svechnikov failed to move from 17 goals in the regular season.

But again flashed his teammate Pyotr Kochetkov, whose reliability helped him write his name in the history of the club.

Against the Devils, the goaltender made 37 saves and helped the Hurricanes to a crushing 4-1 victory.

Moreover, at times the actions of the Russians were amazing.

In the first period, in a spectacular split, he parried not only Tomas Tatar's point-blank throw, but also finishing moves performed by Niko Hishir, and in the middle of the second he again did not allow the Swiss to excel.

He ambushed the rebound of the puck after an unsuccessful attempt by a partner and was ready to surprise Kochetkov, who had lost the frame, but at the last moment he managed to lie across the gate and save Carolina from the inevitable goal.

But he did not rest on this.

In the remaining time, he did not allow Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt to realize impromptu shootouts, and managed to prevent Eric Haule from scoring.

But one day it didn't work out.

All the same Hughes broke through on the right side and took his chance.

However, this did not prevent Kochetkov from receiving the title of the first star of the match and simultaneously repeating the Carolina record.

With him at the gate, the team scored points in ten meetings in a row (eight wins, two losses in overtime).

Previously, only Cam Ward managed to do this, but three times.

During the post-match interview, defenseman Jacob Slavin admired his partner's performance, and the fans gathered at the PNC Arena gave him a standing ovation.

Kochetkov was embarrassed, but nevertheless took the floor and thanked the fans for their support, after which he left the site.

And Hurricanes fans have something to applaud the Russian for.

With him on the ice, the team took over in five meetings in a row and largely thanks to the goalkeeper, who showed phenomenal performance.

During this period, he reflected 95.9% of the shots, and missed an average of one puck per game.