Starship Troopers: how Kucherov scored in the 11th match in a row, and Barbashev scored three points for the first time this season

Revenge for the defeat in the final

The finalists of last year's Stanley Cup fought in the central match of the NHL game day.

In June 2022, Colorado defeated Tampa Bay and prevented it from officially becoming the first dynasty team in the 21st century, and Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevsky and Mikhail Sergachev from winning the main trophy for the third time in a row.

The first chance for revenge came five days ago, which the Lightning eagerly took advantage of and defeated the Avalanche 5-0.

But it’s one thing to beat an opponent on your own ice, and quite another to deal with him on his home court, and even in the conditions of the notorious highlands.

By the 27th minute it might have seemed that there would be no rematch.

The hosts looked more cheerful than the guests and managed to upset Vasilevsky twice.

Moreover, the first puck visited the gates of the owner of the Vezina Trophy already at the 50th second, and one of its creators was his compatriot.

It was Valery Nichushkin who first made the throw, and then closed the goalkeeper's view, giving Artturi Lehkonen the opportunity to excel.

Thus, the Russian interrupted the "dry" series of five meetings, during which he did not score a single point.

However, Tampa managed to recover from this shock and return to the game, despite the enormous pressure of the opponent.

By the end of the second period, they were behind on shots with a difference of 24:33, but managed to close the gap in the score.

And it was Kucherov who did it.

J.T. Compfer made a gross mistake and, instead of the target, hit exactly the curvature of the side, organizing the Lightning counterattack with his own hands.

The puck came exactly to Brayden Point, and he addressed it to his partner, who had opened at the far post.

Nikita did not miss and not only scored 78th (21 + 57) points, but also for the second time in the regular season he gave out a hitting streak of 11 matches.

In the entire history, only two representatives of the club managed to do this - Martin St. Louis (twice) and Stephen Stamkos.

As it turned out, the leader's goal became the very impulse for Tampa, which allowed it to turn the tide of the unsuccessful confrontation.

At the beginning of the third period, the guests compared the score twice.

Already at the 26th second, parity was restored by Anthony Cirelli, and then Vladislav Namestnikov answered Denis Malgin's accurate throw.

At the key moment of the failing season, the Russian demonstrated his technical arsenal and effectively laid on the ice not only promising defender Bowen Byram, but also goalkeeper Alexander Georgiev.

The outcome of the meeting was decided in a shootout, where Vasilevsky said his word.

In 65 minutes, the Russian made 43 saves, and lost one-on-one to neither Evan Rodriguez, nor the star Nathan Mackinon and Mikko Rantanen.

The Lightning's victory was brought by an accurate hit by Stamkos, who was later recognized as the first star of the match.

Kucherov deservedly became the second, even if he did not manage to leave Georgiev out of work.

"Flourishing" Barbashev

This day turned out to be successful for the Russian forward of St. Louis, who returned to the victorious track after the departure of Vladimir Tarasenko.

Three days ago, the Blues took over the outsider of the West in the face of Arizona and interrupted a five-game losing streak, and this time they dealt with one of the contenders for getting into the playoffs in the East - Florida.

And they did it more than confidently.

In total, six goals were thrown into the gates of the guests at once, half of which were involved in Ivan Barbashev.

Not to say that after the exchange of Tarasenko to the Rangers, his status in the team has changed.

Barbashev remained in the third link and continued to spend 15 minutes on the ice, except that he began to do it in a different environment.

Now he went out in a trio with Noel Accari and Sammy Bleu who moved from New York.

But already in the course of the meeting with the Panthers, he was transferred to the first link - to Ryan O'Reilly and Pavel Buchnevich.

Let the misfortune of the partner contributed to this to a greater extent.

By the time Brandon Saad received an upper body injury, the Russian had already scored one point.

It was his timely pass to reactive defender Nick Leddy that helped him break into the operational space and increase the advantage of St. Louis to three goals.

And after reuniting with a compatriot, the forward could no longer be stopped.

First, together with Buchnevich, they helped O'Reilly hit the enemy's goal for the fourth time, and in the very ending, Barbashev sent the puck into an empty target (6:2), strengthening his title of the third star of the match.

Thus, for the first time in the season, Ivan scored three points (1 + 2) per game and significantly improved his personal statistics.

He already has 27 (10 + 17), which is the second best result in his career.

He scored more only in the last championship (26 + 34), when he often found himself in the same combination with the same Buchnevich and Tarasenko.

As for Paul himself, things are much better with him.

With 42 (15 + 27) points, he is third on the Blues' top scorer list, behind only Jordan Kyre (13 + 33) and Robert Thomas (24 + 27).

And this despite the fact that due to injury, the Russian spent ten matches less than teammates.