Milestones in abundance: how Kucherov got to the hundred, Ovechkin scored a brace, and Panarin scored three points in 601 seconds in the NHL.

Kucherov and Panarin's scoring milestones

Nikita Kucherov was the first Russian to reach the 100-point mark in the current NHL regular season. Before him, only two leaders of Edmonton managed to do this - Connor McDavid (128 points) and Leon Draisaitl (104).

To reach the grandmaster mark, the Tampa forward had enough 71 games. Kucherov scored a goal in a home game against New Jersey and broke the landmark mark for the third time in his career. He had previously scored exactly 100 points in the 2017-18 season and 128 points a year later.

Thus, the Russian became the sixth current player in the league, who conquered the three-digit mark three times and equaled Evgeny Malkin. Alexander Ovechkin and Draisaitl have four such seasons, Sidney Crosby and McDavid have six each.

Alas, all the vivid impressions of Kucherov's personal achievements were blurred by the defeat of Tampa with a score of 2: 5. Not even 34 saves from goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy helped the team. However, the Russian forward was recognized as the third star of this meeting.

A landmark achievement was also noted by Artemi Panarin, who made a significant contribution to the crushing victory of the Rangers over Nashville. The team from New York simply destroyed the opponent in the first period, scoring six unanswered goals, and the Russian scored a gorgeous goal and two assists. After receiving a pass from the left faceoff circle, Artemi shifted to the center, rocked the defender, and then unexpectedly threw from under him, taking Juuse Saros, who came by surprise as a substitute for Kevin Lankinen.

And before that, the Russian took part in the goals of Mika Zibanejad and K'Andre Miller, thanks to which he rose to 17th place in the race of scorers. This is the 11th time in his career that Panarin has picked up three points in a single period, approaching the club's legends Rod Gilbert, who has 13 such accomplishments, as well as Brian Leach and Steve Vickers (both 12 each).

In addition, after this match, Artemiy scored 80 points, and this is the third season of the Russian striker when he overcomes this mark. In this aspect, the forward is second only to Gilbert with four such regular seasons and Marc Messier with five. And in terms of the total number of points scored in his career (649 points in 577 games), he surpassed Igor Larionov in the list of Russian scorers in the previous match and went to the sole 15th place.

In addition, the phenomenal performance of the Rangers allowed the team to update the club record, which had been held since 1979. The New Yorkers scored five goals against Nashville in 601 seconds, improving on their previous record of 690 seconds.

Ovechkin's dedication

Alexander Ovechkin is doing everything he can to get a stalled Washington into the playoffs. The Captain of the Capitals came out for another game against Minnesota, probably never recovering from a lower-body injury. His participation in the game was in doubt until the last minutes, as he did not appear on the ice during the morning training. But, as Alexander himself had stressed a few days earlier, skipping games at this time of year is not his style. So he stepped on the ice and scored two goals, reducing the gap to Wayne Gretzky to 75 goals.

Alexander again managed to upset Marc-Andre Fleury, who is called the favorite "client" of the Russian. During his long career in the NHL, Ovechkin most often hits the goal, which is defended by this particular goaltender. Moreover, the 38-year-old goalie missed from Alexander for four different teams: Pittsburgh, Vegas, Chicago and Minnesota. After Ovi's brace in the match, those goals rose to 27.

Alexander scored the first goal in his trademark style, mostly from the "office", the second - from the same place, but not in touch after the pass, as usual, but immediately after the face-off, from the hands. The Russian also participated in the capitals' third goal by Dylan Strome, but it wasn't enough to win. Washington suffered its second straight loss and is still out of the playoff zone.

"We are not giving up and are trying to fight back. We try our best to win, we don't stop playing and fighting," Ovechkin said after the game.

Meanwhile, with 38 and 39 goals in this regular season, Ovechkin beat NHL legend Brett Hull in goals for players who turn 37. The star of the 1990s had 37. And only Gordie Howe and Johnny Butzik scored more than Ovechkin , 44 and 40 in the 1972-73 season.

Interestingly, Ovechkin has never left Minnesota without a point in his entire career. The Capitals captain played 12 games away to the Wild, scoring in eight of them and assisting in four others.