Minnesota Wild 5-3 Washington Capitals
Even the absence of Minnesota leader Kirill Kaprizov, who is still recovering from his injury, did not help Washington on the road against Wild. The Capitals continue to cling desperately to the playoffs, despite a series of swaps that signal an approaching rebuild with a deadline.
That’s right, Peter Laviolette’s team has a clear problem: Every time they do well in the second and third periods, the Capitals too often lead their opponents into the first period. So this time it was.
Matt Baldy scored the first goal of the game just 50 seconds after the start of the game, putting Minnesota ahead (1:0).
And less than four minutes later, after the transfer of Markus Johansson, he sent the puck into Darcy Kümper’s goal (2:0). The Swedish striker was traded from Washington to Minnesota at the end of the trade period. Actually, finishing in the first goal was also after his shot.
Of course, the captain of the “capital” committed to returning his team to the game. In the second period, Alexander Ovechkin transformed the majority with a one-time hit from his “office” in the left starting circle (2:1).
The next time he scored a little more than seven minutes before the end of the third 20-minute period, he also scored an extra goal. The partners earned a throw-in in their area and Ovi threw through traffic through the bushes under Marc-Andre Fleury’s seat.
So Alexander the Great has already scored 39 goals this season and will allow him to be the sole leader in season number with at least 40 goals next season. While sharing the championship with Wayne Gretzky, who has gone through 13 such campaigns.
Later, Ovechkin also scored an assist that helped Dylan Strome score, but all this did not save Caps – the score was only 5: 3 in favor of Minnesota, as the scoreboard was 4:1 when Alexander scored his second goal. Baldy managed to score a hat-trick in favor of “Wild” and before Strome’s final goal.
“We are not giving up and we are trying to fight. We try to show our best in every game. We will not stop, we will fight,” said Ovechkin, and made statements to the journalists after the match.
Another thing, this war doesn’t seem to have a positive ending.
Washington is currently 10th in the Eastern Conference, five points behind the second-place Wild Card. But Pittsburgh, which also occupies this place, has two games in hand.
Also complicating things is Evgeny Kuznetsov’s injury after hitting defender Matt Damba in the first period of his game against Minnesota. The Russian centre-forward left the field and did not return to play.
The “savages” have their own race. After this win, Avalanche played two games less, but they were two points behind Colorado in their fight for second place in the Intermediate League. At the same time, Minnesota is just one point behind leaders Dallas, with games tied.
New York Rangers 7-0 Nashville Predators
Yakov Train is desperately fighting – only in the West – “Nashville” Yakov Train to get into the “joker” zone. That’s right, the game against the Rangers, which gained momentum and won their fourth straight win, the Predators will probably want to forget for a moment.
Especially in the first period where the Predators scored 6 unanswered goals in Madison Square Garden, main gatekeeper Jusse Saros missed 4 shots while managing the team, replacing Kevin Lankinen, who was on the field from the first minutes. just to reflect one!
Saros wasn’t too helpful either. He removed the puck from his own net twice before the first timeout and missed again in the remaining time. At the same time, when the visiting team could not distinguish itself, Yaroslav Galak was thrown out of the game and reflected his 17 shots to his own goal.
One of the best players of the match was Blueshirts forward Artemy Panarin, who scored one goal and two assists in the first period, while Vladimir Tarasenko could not score in this match.
The real character, however, was defender K’Andre Miller, who became the first defender to score 4 (2+2) points in one period in the rich club’s history.
Panarin extended his streak to four games, scoring 6 (2+4) points in those games, and his team is confidently in third place in the Capital Division with 92 points after 70 games. New Jersey’s Gerard Gallan’s guards are five points behind and the Islanders are up 12 points.
Nashville is currently tenth in the West, five points behind last-placed Winnipeg, but the Predators have three games to play.
Tampa Bay Lightning 2-5 New Jersey Devils
A complete failure for Tampa Bay ended in his home meeting with New Jersey despite beating that team twice last week. And this time it started off great.
In the first period Nikita Kucherov scored after a “wall” with Steven Stamkos during an extra draw, but the Russian made a terrific shot before the removed player had already left the penalty area, but had not yet managed to reach the area.
This was the 100th (28+72) point Kucherov received in his 71st match this season. This is the striker’s third season in his career with such a great master score (2017/18 and 2018/19).
Lightning doubled the lead in the second period, but then Sweden Devils forward Jasper Bratt took over, scoring his first NHL career hat-trick and bringing the guests a strong-willed victory.
Other matches
Buffalo Sabers 0-7 Boston Bruins
Vegas Golden Knights 7-2 Columbus Blue Jackets
Louis Blues 3-0 Winnipeg Jets
Anaheim Ducks 1-2 Vancouver Canucks
Pavel Dorofeev and Kirill Marchenko, the 22-year-old forwards of Vegas and Columbus, recorded one goal and one assist in a head-to-head battle between their teams. The Golden Knights, who also had a great season, confidently took a big win.