Los Angeles Kings 4-2 Washington Capitals
“Washington” went to the match with “Los Angeles” in a series of two wins, but the “capital” was unable to keep winning. The Capitals opened the score with a goal from Rasmus Sadin in the middle of the second period, but two minutes later, with the help of Vladislav Gavrikov, Kevin Fiala and Viktor Arvidsson, they scored their first goal for the Kings and tied the scoreboard. With half a minute left in the second period, Philippe Dano put Los Angeles ahead.
Ovechkin played as before, he was very active on the ice and at the beginning of the third period equalized the power play by throwing his distinctive style, on contact from an average distance with a strong click.
This puck is the 36th puck for Alexander the Great in the current NHL regular season, narrowing the gap between Wayne Gretzky’s “eternal record” to 78 goals.
Ovechkin follows suit, and many hockey experts no longer doubt that he will beat Gretzky’s record. Olympic champion, two-time world champion, three-time Gagarin Cup winner and Stanley Cup finalist Ilya Kovalchuk said that the latest tragedy in the Ovechkin family – the death of his father Mikhail – will be only additional motivation.
“Uncle Misha is a big fan of his son, a hockey fan. He devoted all his free time to Sasha. Difficult situation. I’ve experienced this too. No words needed here. The most important thing is to support and give time. This is life. We are not getting younger. We will always remember him. Sleigh now has an additional incentive to break all records, and his father’s name is already sacred in history forever,” Sport24 quotes Kovalchuk.
In this match, the 31-year-old American goalkeeper Phoenix Copley defended the Kings’ doors.
He became the 169th NHL goalkeeper to score with Ovechkin. Only two players have scored more goals than goalkeepers in league history: Jaromir Jagr (178) and Patrik Marleau (177).
But Ovechkin’s goal did not help “Washington” to escape in this match. Los Angeles countered the Russian forward’s puck by scoring two more goals, Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe noted. This defeat made it very difficult for the Capitals to fight for the playoffs as they were three points away from a place guaranteed to be in the next stage. For Washington, the situation is complicated by the fact that the direct competitors in the playoff fight – the Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Airs, Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers – have fewer games to play than the Capitals.
Other NHL matches involving Russians
There weren’t many games with Russian hockey players on the last game day of the NHL regular season. The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Nashville Predators 4-3 in a shootout. Russian players contributed to the victory: Andrey Kuzmenko helped Elias Pettersson score in the 5th minute of the match, and Vasily Podkolzin, who opened the score in the match, scored his team’s second goal, putting them ahead in the score (2:1) ).
Russian San Jose defender Nikolai Knyzhov made his first appearance on the ice in an NHL game since May 2021 in the duel between the Winnipeg Jets and the San Jose Sharks, which ended with the visitors’ 3-2 victory in overtime.
He missed last season due to injury. In August 2022, the Russian tore his Achilles and underwent a new operation that took several months to recover. In January 2023, San Jose sent a defender to the American Hockey League’s (AHL) San Jose Barracuda farm club to get in shape. Knyzhov played 12 matches in the AHL with a benefit indicator of -6. In the first match for the sharks, he did not distinguish himself after a long break and, like two other Russian players, finished the battle with the usefulness indicator “-1”: Evgeny Svechnikov and Alexander Barabanov. Striker Vladislav Namestnikov, who played for the Jets, also failed to score.
Dallas Stars got into a home clash with Calgary Flames and lost 4-5. Russian Nikita Zadorov from the winning team wrote an abandoned puck, scored the second goal of his team, his assistants were Troy Stecher and Nazem Kadri. Dallas player Evgeny Dadonov was unable to score any points and help his team avoid defeat.