Star peaks: Panarin broke Ovechkin and Malkin's NHL records, Kaprizov scored 40 goals for the third season in a row

Panarin's four points

Artemi Panarin was named the first star of the game between the Rangers and Montreal, as well as the second star of the entire game day in the NHL. The Russian scored four points in the reporting game: he scored a goal and scored a hat-trick of assists. Now he has 115 points in the current regular season, and this is a repeat of the best result for left wingers in the 21st century. Only Johnny Gaudreau and Jonathan Huberdeau scored as many.

In addition, Artemy surpassed the personal records of two famous compatriots - Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. The best scoring result of the Washington captain is 112 points (in the 2007/08 season), and the Pittsburgh leader is 113 (2008/09).

Among active hockey players from Russia, Panarin is second only to Nikita Kucherov, who has already scored 136 points this season. Also in the top five are Alexander Mogilny with 127 points in the 1992/93 season and Sergei Fedorov with 120 points (1993/94 season). If Panarin does not slow down, he has a chance to break the scoring record among Rangers hockey players. It now belongs to Jaromir Jagr, who scored 123 (54 + 69) points in the 2005/06 season.

As for the match with Montreal, it was not easy for the leader of the Eastern Conference at first. The hosts had the advantage throughout the first period, attacked more, but missed an offensive goal in the last minute. Cole Caufield shot from a negative angle, and the puck bounced into the net off the skate of Igor Shesterkin.

The Rangers were able to recover only in the middle of the second period of the game: Mika Zibanejad scored from Panarin's pass. But the team from New York did not plan to send the match into overtime and lose points with an outsider, and after the second break they simply hit the opponent like a hurricane. Panarin was one of the main characters in the decisive twenty minutes. First, he made a delicate pass to Chris Kreider for a nickel, and then he scored himself. Artemy carried the puck from his own half of the ice, played with Alexis Lafreniere and left the Canadiens goalkeeper out of action.

Panarin's goal was the winner, as the guests managed to break through Shesterkin only once more. And the Russian forward himself could have scored again in the end, when Montreal sent out a sixth fielder, but missed the empty net. After the game, Artemy complained that he had been training this particular component of the game all morning, but, alas, without success. However, the Rangers still scored the final point with the participation of their number ten, who made the third pass of the game - this time to Lafreniere.

For Panarin, this match was the fourth in his career with four points scored, and he was one step away from repeating the franchise record. Only Rangers legends Mark Messier and Rod Gilbert have five such multi-point games under their belts. He is also close to surpassing the great Wayne Gretzky in assisting hat-tricks. The Canadian has seven, the Russian has six so far.

Kaprizov's sad record

Kirill Kaprizov continues to make history for Minnesota, despite the fact that the team still has purely theoretical chances to reach the NHL playoffs. The team's gap to the saving eighth place is 10 points, and there are only five matches left in the regular season.

For the Russian striker, it is doubly offensive to end the season early, because hardly anyone can blame him for the team’s unsatisfactory result. In the last 16 games, he scored 25 points (15 + 10) and only once left the ice without making an effective action.

The away meeting with Chicago was another benefit for the Russian striker, who scored two goals and made an assist.

The guests spent the first period quite actively and significantly outscored the hosts - 13 shots on target against 5. However, they managed to bring things to a goal only at the beginning of the second twenty minutes. The Blackhawks violated the rules, and Kaprizov put a bright spot on the power play with a slashing wrist shot from the right faceoff circle.

The goal was the Russian's 40th in the current regular season. For the third season in a row, Kirill has overcome this bar, which no one in the history of Minnesota has managed to do before him. And even none of the forwards scored four dozen goals twice: Marian Gaborik reached this mark once in 2008 and Eric Staal in 2018. If we take the NHL as a whole, then Kaprizov repeated the achievement of Jaromir Jagr.

The domestic hockey player did not stop at one goal and in the second half of the period Marco Rossi helped to score. Kirill managed to save the puck for his team in the opposing zone and make an effective pass.

The third goal against Chicago was also not without a Russian trace, but it was not Kaprizov who took part in it, but Marat Khusnutdinov. This is only the second point in 11 games for the Wild newcomer.

Well, the leader of Minnesota put a beautiful point in this meeting. Together with Brock Faber, they ran to the enemy goal two-on-two, but the American did not shoot himself, but made a smart back pass to his partner, who had no difficulty in getting the puck into the net with a touch. According to Faber, he did not see Kaprizov from behind, but responded to his loud request for a pass.

As a result of the match, Kirill was recognized as the second star, and the first was awarded to Wild goalkeeper Jesper Wallstedt, who was called up from the farm club and scored a shutout in the second NHL game of his career. He stopped 24 shots in his possessions.