Ovechkin's 821st goal and assist helped Washington defeat Chicago
In the National Hockey League (NHL) regular season match, the Washington Capitals defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1 on home ice. As part of the hosts, team captain Alexander Ovechkin scored a goal and an assist, scoring his 41st goal of the season and 821st in his entire career in the NHL. To the “eternal record” of Wayne Gretzky, the Russian has 73 goals left.
Washington Capitals 6-1 Chicago Blackhawks
A team from the capital of the USA, led by Alexander Ovechkin, interrupted an unsuccessful streak of three defeats in a row, effectively outplaying Chicago on their ice. Someone may say that it is not a great achievement to roll out one of the outsiders. But we must not forget that the Caps and the stars themselves are not enough from the sky. They continue their desperate fight for the wild card in the playoffs, and any victory is valuable, and such a score can only give confidence.
There was only one team on the ice for almost the entire match. By the 42nd minute, the score was 5:0 in favor of the Capitals, while when Anthony Manta scored the second goal, Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov acted as assistants.
In the 44th minute, Nikita Zaitsev upset Washington goalkeeper Darcy Kemper, depriving him of the planned shut-out, and for Zaitsev, this goal was the first of the season (5: 1).
However, the hosts had the last word: in the 55th minute, Ovechkin turned on the red light behind the gates of compatriot Anton Khudobin, setting the final score (6:1).
The Russian emotionally celebrated the victory, the first to share his emotions with his eldest son Sergei.
Thanks to these two points, Ovi updated and improved several achievements. First of all, this puck was his 41st of the season, and he was one step closer to the legendary Wayne Gretzky's sniper record.
Now the gap between the Great Eight and the Canadian is 73 goals: Ovechkin has 821 career goals, while Gretzky has 894.
In addition, the captain of the "capital" became the fifth Russian in the current season to score 70 or more points - he "broke through" this figure thanks to an assist on Manta. In total, according to the results of the game with Chicago, Ovechkin scored 71 points for the season - 41 goals and 30 assists. Previously, this bar was reached by Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, Artemy Panarin, and Evgeni Malkin. We also note that Alexander is gaining 70 or more points already in the 13th season during his overseas career.
Returning to the match between "Washington" and "Chicago", it is worth noting separately the appearance at the gates of the "hawks" Khudobin. He was traded to the Blackhawks from Dallas on March 3 and played his first game for the new team last night. Moreover, Anton played in the NHL for the first time since January 2022 - last season he played 24 games for the Dallas Texas farm club in the AHL.
Khudobin's comeback to the NHL cannot be called successful. Not only did he concede six goals, but he also made a blunder that led to Conor Sheary opening the scoring in the 11th minute. Anton came out of the gate with the puck to give it to one of the partners in the center of the site.
But instead, he absurdly touched her with a stick, and she flew off to the side - exactly on Shiri, who took full advantage of such a gift and hit the empty goal with a touch.
Despite a clearly unsuccessful match, Khudobin still set a record: he became the 12th Russian goalkeeper who went on the ice in the NHL this season. And this is a record figure for Russian goalkeepers who took part in one league season. The previous achievement was set in the 2020/21 season - then 11 Russian goalkeepers played in the matches of the tournament.
Carolina Hurricanes 1-2 New York Rangers
The heroes of the match in Carolina as part of the Rangers were the Russians - goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin and striker Artemy Panarin. At the same time, the guests were the first to concede: in the 17th minute, Sebastian Aho opened the scoring. It was Panarin who restored the balance in the middle of the second period, assisted by Vladimir Tarasenko. And in the final 20 minutes, Adam Fox scored the puck from Panarin's pass, which turned out to be a winner for the New Yorkers.
Shesterkin was recognized as the first star of the meeting. Despite conceding the puck, he did a very good job overall, saving 29 shots.
And in many ways, the victory of the Rangers is precisely his merit. It is no coincidence that the head coach of the Carolinas, Rod Brindamore, noted Igor in the post-match commentary.
“Their goalie made some really cool saves, hats off to him. Of course, we know how this team plays. This is a great, skillful team with an amazing goalkeeper, ” the official NHL website quotes the specialist as saying.
As for Panarin, he became the second star of the match. According to the results of the match with the Hurricanes, he has 82 points (24 + 58) in his asset this season. And in total, Artemy has 650 points in 579 NHL career games. He became the 15th Russian player in league history to achieve this mark.
You can not ignore Tarasenko.
The effective transfer in the game with Carolina was for him the 300th for his career in the overseas league - Vladimir became the 23rd Russian who exchanged the fourth hundred assists.
Ottawa Senators 7-2 Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa is in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings and is unlikely to miss the playoffs. However, the trip to Ottawa was extremely unsuccessful for the Lightning. They lost by a big score while suffering the third defeat in a row.
A small consolation for Russian fans of the Lightning will probably be the fact that Russian hockey players were involved in both goals of the team.
In the 31st minute, with the score 0:2, Braden Point gave hope to the Lightning, assisted by Nikita Kucherov. And in the 45th minute, with the transfer of the same Kucherov, Mikhail Sergachev made the score 2:4.
However, after that, only the hosts scored.
Despite the defeat, Kucherov, thanks to two assists, strengthened his position in the list of Russian hockey players with the most assists. At the moment, he has 444 assists in his NHL career, according to this indicator, he caught up with Alexei Yashin, they share 13-14th places. The next bar for Kucherov will be Andrey Markov's indicator - 453 assists.
In addition, Nikita will soon remove Alexei Zhamnov from 13th place in the list of the most productive Russians in the NHL. Kucherov after the match with Ottawa has 102 (28+74) points for the season and 718 points in 635 career games. Zhamnov scored just one point more in 807 games.
Vancouver Canucks 7-2 San Jose Sharks
The match in Vancouver ended with the same score, where the local killer whales confidently dealt with the sharks. But this time the Russians were part of the victors. Although, it should be noted that Nikolai Knyzhov and Alexander Barabanov played for San Jose - but they finished the match with utility indicators of "-4" and "-2", respectively.
And one of the real heroes of the meeting was the Russian forward of Vancouver Andrey Kuzmenko - he scored a goal and an assist. Vasily Podkolzin became the author of another puck.
At the same time, Kuzmenko broke Pavel Bure's record for goals in his debut season for the Canucks. The “Russian Rocket” had 34 goals in the 1991/92 season, while Kuzmenko already had 35.
“I am very happy for Andrey. The contract for the next season has been signed,” Kuzmenko’s agent Dan Milstein told the “Championship”. - As Pavel Datsyuk said, the contract should not be signed but worked out.
I wish Andriy to prepare well next season and surpass the achievements of this season, do not stop, progress with every game and be better every day than yesterday.”
Detroit Red Wings 3-4 St. Louis Blues
For the "bluesmen," the beginning of this game turned out to be worse than you can imagine. Within a minute and a half after the starting siren, they were on fire with a score of 0:2.
However, they quickly managed to recover and from the 10th to the 35th minute scored four goals in a row. And the beginning of this comeback was laid by the goal of Alexei Toropchenko.
The hosts could not recover from such a turn and answered only with a goal by Alex Chiasson at the end of the meeting.
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