The meeting between Columbus and the Rangers in the NHL regular season could hardly be called fundamental, since the teams were located at different poles of the Eastern Conference standings.
The squad from New York was confidently in the lead and undefeated for ten matches, while the hockey players from Ohio entrenched themselves in the basement and lost hope of getting into the playoffs.
Nevertheless, the confrontation turned out to be very emotional and vivid, and a significant contribution to this was made by the fight that happened in the very first minutes of the game.
Rangers forward Matt Rempe scored again, staging his fourth fist fight in five games in which he took to the ice in the league.
Previously, Matt Martin, Jonas Siegenthaler and Nicolas Deslauriers fell under the hot hand of the 21-year-old debutant, and this time Matthew Olivier became his opponent.
Probably, the hockey players agreed on a fight during the warm-up, since the camera captured them talking about something, and the preceding game moment did not provide any formal reasons for the fight.
However, the players threw away their sticks and gloves and fought hand-to-hand.
The Columbus striker emerged victorious in the fight, and Rempe went to the locker room to clean up.
Despite the fact that both received a five-minute penalty for their boxing show, the success of their teammate inspired more of the Blue Jackets.
“Oli is a handsome guy, he charged the team with emotions for the whole game, we played the match with these emotions and won,” noted one of its main heroes, Dmitry Voronkov, after the meeting.
It was he who scored the first goal in the match.
22 seconds after the fight, the hosts earned a majority and, at the end of it, played a great combination that ended with a goal.
True, a second before this, the opponent’s fifth outfield player returned to the ice, so the goal formally took place at even strength.
At this point, it is worth noting the filigree pass of Kirill Marchenko to Voronkov, who could only send the puck into the empty corner of the goal of Igor Shesterkin’s replacement, Jonathan Quick.
For the 23-year-old forward, the goal was the 16th of his NHL career, placing him fourth in franchise history in goals scored in his debut season.
Only Rick Nash (17), Pierre-Luc Dubois (20) and the same Marchenko (21) scored more.
In addition, the Russian is only one shot behind Connor Bedard and Marco Rossi on the list of the most productive NHL rookies this season.
As for Marchenko, the assist on Voronkov was the fourth in the last seven matches, and he has 14 in total.
“Two weeks ago he said he would play the pass, play smart.
So he started playing.
He knows how, he sees everything,” Voronkov shared his opinion about his partner.
The missed goal spurred the Rangers, who rushed to win back.
Particularly noticeable was Artemiy Panarin, who is having a phenomenal stretch after the break associated with the All-Star Game.
Over nine games, he scored 12 (2 + 10) points, and in the reporting match he added another accurate hit to the statistics, thanks to which he updated his personal sniper record.
The striker now has 33 goals, and he has never scored more goals in the NHL.
And in total, during his career in the league, Artemy scored 249 times and was equal in this indicator to former Chicago forward Alexei Zhamnov.
Artemy's record goal was also surprisingly effective.
He received a pass from Adam Fox near the right side, moved towards the goal and shot sharply from almost zero angle.
The puck whizzed right between Merzlikin's shoulder and the crossbar.
The spectators saw no more goals in the first period, but the second began with a lightning-fast attack by Columbus, which ended with a goal scored in the 18th second.
This time the entire “Russian troika” distinguished itself: Marchenko scored with a pass from Voronkov and Yegor Chinakhov.
The latter was also very active in organizing attacks, but despite all his efforts, this time he left the site without any effective actions.
But at the end of the game, Ivan Provorov, who rarely pleases the fans with goals, made the stands explode.
The defender joined in a quick counterattack and literally crossed Quick, thus chalking up his fifth goal of the season.
Before this, the teams also managed to exchange goals from Adam Edstrom and Jack Roslovic.
The opponents went into the break with the score 4:2 in favor of the hosts, and the numbers on the scoreboard did not change in the last 20 minutes of the match.
Thus, the Rangers interrupted their triumphant streak of ten victories and failed to set a new franchise record.
Meanwhile, the Russian team of Columbus is approaching the landmark mark.
Currently, Marchenko, Chinakhov and Voronkov have accounted for 48 of the Blue Jackets' 170 goals this season, which is 28.24%.
“We communicate a lot, so everything works out well for us.
We will work, we will become even better,” summed up Voronkov, who was recognized as the third star of the last match.