While Ovechkin scored his 831st goal: Kucherov again led the NHL scoring race, Panarin scored three points

The revival of Ovechkin and Kuznetsov

The end of January turned out to be extremely difficult for Washington. During the away tour, Spencer Carbery's team suffered three defeats in a row with a total score of 5:14 and were not in the best mood when approaching the confrontation with Dallas. Moreover, the leaders were not in the best shape. And if Alexander Ovechkin, who had not scored in eight meetings, continued to benefit the team and consistently assist his partners, then each point was given to Evgeny Kuznetsov with great difficulty. Since the beginning of the year, he has added only four (1 + 3) points to his record and shares seventh place in the list of the capital’s top scorers with Connor McMichael.

But on this day, the once main carrier of shells for Ovechkin finally broke through. Kuznetsov scored the same number of points as in the previous ten meetings in total. He not only helped Anthony Mantha open the scoring, but also took part in his captain's 831st goal. It was his subtle pass that gave Alexander enough time to take aim and hit Jake Ettinger with a powerful throw during the power play. And thereby assure skeptics that his main weapon is still with him.

However, this only allowed the Capitals to reduce the gap to the Stars to a minimum. The guests needed to go forward and score again, which they succeeded in doing. Moreover, the comeback was completed thanks to Ovechkin. This time the Russian unexpectedly fired from the blue line, and Dylan Strome, who was on duty in the slot, made the finishing move. And although the referee blew the whistle prematurely, the goal was still counted.

Thus, in just 77 seconds, Ovechkin not only came within a distance of Wayne Gretzky’s record of 63 goals, but also took first place in the ranking of Washington’s most productive hockey players. And later he could become the main hero of overtime. His gorgeous slalom run almost ended with Ettinger's capitulation, but Alexander was unable to either throw himself or cut an accurate pass to Strome. And retribution followed immediately. In the next attack, Thomas Harley upset Charlie Lindgren and extended Washington's unsuccessful streak to four matches (4:5 OT).

Rangers comeback

It’s interesting that at the end of the month both Peter Laviolette’s former team and the current one were a bit of a mess. The Rangers also didn’t do the best in their series of away games and by the reporting match they had achieved success in only one out of five. And they were determined to rehabilitate themselves in the meeting with Ottawa.

True, at first the Senators did not look like one of the main outsiders of the regular season. The home side started brightly and by the 23rd minute they caught Jonathan Quick off guard twice. But then some kind of eclipse came over them. During the remaining time, the Canadian team conceded seven times and suffered one of the biggest defeats of the competitive year (2:7). Before that, they were second only to Florida (0:5) by the same margin.

One of the main architects of this defeat was Artemy Panarin. He scored three points for the first time in 2024 and was deservedly recognized as the second star of the match. The title of best player went to Quick, who decided to no longer allow opponents to turn on the red light behind his goal and parried 93.5% of shots.

Unlike the match with Tampa on New Year's Eve (then he scored a hat-trick), this time Panarin showed the skills of both a dispatcher and a finisher. First, after his powerful click, Alexi Lafreniere succeeded in finishing, and three minutes later Zach Jones scored. The defender supported the counterattack organized by Artemy and crossed at the far post.

Once again Panarin came to the fore at the very end. The leader of the New Yorkers hit the empty target. And he not only regained sixth place in the scoring race, equaling Mikko Rantanen on points, but also reached the 30-goal mark in a season for the fourth time in his career. Among the current undrafted hockey players, no one can boast of this.

Kucherov's jerk

In turn, the leader of the Tampa Bay Lightning continues the scoring dispute with the star striker of Colorado. The day before, Nathan MacKinnon again took first place in the race for the Art Ross Trophy, but Nikita Kucherov did not remain behind the Canadian for long. The very next day, the Russian regained the title of the most productive player of the regular season - 85 points in 49 games. Even if this did not give reason to include him among the three main creators of the victory over New Jersey (6:3).

Perhaps the reason for this is both the lack of goals scored and the fact that in both cases the Russian acted as a second assistant. Although this does not detract from his merits. At the beginning of the third period, he took part in a productive attack that ended with Steven Stamkos finishing, and at the very end he made a crucial interception in the midzone and then helped Brandon Hagel hit the empty target. Thus, he saved Tampa from a tense ending. In the remaining time, the hosts scored again empty-handed and removed all questions about the winner.

But if Kucherov has again become one of the main characters in the confrontation, then Andrei Vasilevsky can hardly be completely satisfied with himself. After all, even though he stopped 21 shots, he missed three times and for the 12th time this season did not reach the grandmaster mark of 90% of saves.

Varlamov’s futile efforts and Kaprizov’s goal

Another Russian goalkeeper brought another victory to his team. During this season, Ilya Samsonov experienced enormous difficulties and was even one step away from leaving Toronto, but the transfer to the reserve did him good. He recently returned to the Maple Leafs' starting lineup and in the last week alone helped them win three games in a row, while he stopped 72 of 75 shots (96%) during that stretch.

The next successful stop in this series was a trip to Winnipeg (4:2), where Samsonov prevailed in a head-to-head duel with one of the main contenders for the Vezina Trophy, Connor Hellebuyck. Yes, he made two more saves (26–24), but both in terms of the number of goals conceded and the percentage of saves, the Russian was better. It is all the more surprising that it was not he, but a Canadian who was included in the list of stars of the match.

But Semyon Varlamov succeeded, finishing the top three hockey players in the match between the Islanders and the Panthers. The goalkeeper made amends for his failure in the recent meeting with Montreal and stopped 34 shots, literally dragging his team into overtime with his own hands. True, there he was powerless. Already at the end of the second minute, he was caught by surprise by Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Florida won their fourth victory in a row.

Other foreign players from Russia did not save their teams from defeat. Thus, Minnesota lost to Anaheim (2:3), despite a goal from Kirill Kaprizov, who strengthened his status as the third top scorer among Russians this season (19 + 26), and Vegas unexpectedly lost to Detroit (2: 5). The scorer of one of the goals for the reigning Stanley Cup champions was Ivan Barbashev, who reached the 30-point mark in the regular season for the second time in his career.

He fought desperately, but again lost to Columbus. This time, Pascal Vincent's team lost to one of the leaders of the Western Conference - Vancouver, but only in overtime. And the Russians helped get the Blue Jackets there. First, Egor Chinakhov assisted Jake Bean, and then Kirill Marchenko scored on the power play. But the Canucks managed to come back from 1:4.

But in extra time, Pittsburgh gained the upper hand. And one of the organizers of the winning goal was Evgeni Malkin, who scored points in the fifth match in a row. The Russian made an interception in his zone, and Rikard Rakkel and Marcus Pettersson completed the job (3:2 OT).

“Carolina” did not delay the identification of the strongest in the confrontation with “Arizona”. The hosts found themselves in the role of catching up, but first they restored parity, and in the very end they hit Connor Ingram’s goal twice more (3:1). Moreover, the author of the decisive goal was Dmitry Orlov. Like a real forward, he broke through the flank and fired right into the far corner.