The Western Conference final that ended yesterday between the Colorado Avalanche and the Edmonton Oilers was far less eventful than the battle between Tampa and the Rangers. Colorado confidently battled Edmonton (4-0) in four games, and now they’re calmly preparing for the decisive battle for the Stanley Cup, watching their potential rivals harass each other.
On the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, everything seemed more tense from the beginning – New Yorkers and “lightning” are incredibly similar to each other: incredibly talented Russians are playing at the door; in the past series, as often happens in the playoffs, the main role was taken by players who were not considered stars; and the coaches of both teams have a similar playing style.
Game 4 of the series was crucial – either the Rangers returned home with a comfortable margin and two mistakes, or Lightning took both home games, tied the scores and went to New York happy and with a psychological advantage over the opponent.
The first period started with high-speed attacks from the guests – in the first two minutes, Gerard Gallan’s team managed to hit Andrei Vasilevsky’s goal three times, but Tampa still managed to open the score.
The striking three-pointer ended with a solo pass from the right by Zak Boghosyan, who outstripped his two opponents in the match rim. His kick with an annoying hand was knocked out by Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin, but Patrick Maroun was the first to finish, putting the puck into an empty net – 1:0.
The defeated puck did not break the New York team – in the first 20 minutes they outstripped their opponents (10:8) and made almost twice as many power moves (15:8), but the Lightning defense, led by Andrey Vasilevsky, acted reliably.
However, those approaches that Tampa managed to make to Shesterkin’s castle looked far more dangerous – what happened in the fifth minute of the game when Amalie Arena rushed to rejoice in a goal that wasn’t there!
The second period passed almost the same way – the guests attacked more often, but less sharply. On 12:7 shots, six block tries from Tampa and zero tries from the Rangers, but Lightning still won the period! At the end of the first half of the match, a stunning pass from Ondrej Palat broke through the New Yorkers’ defense and took the bat from Nikita Kucherov, who easily hit the bottom corner of Shesterkin’s goal – 2:0! Subsequently, this goal prevailed.
In the third game segment, the on-court advantage passed to Tampa and 15 minutes before the siren decided all questions about the winner – Stevens Stamkos dropped the third puck from Oda’s pass into Rangers goal.
Four minutes before the end of the game, the “guards” replaced the goalkeeper with the sixth fielder – Artemy Panarin, deftly eliminating two opponents with a slight movement of the club, realizing the numerical advantage.
Being careful on the blue line, Rangers had the opportunity to close the gap until the end of the match, but within nine seconds the same Ondrej Palat escaped from their opponents and went into an empty net – the final score was 4:1, the series moved to New York with a 2-2 win. .
Russian records
Lightning goalkeeper Andrey Vasilevsky was recognized as the best player of the game – he managed to repel 34 of his 35 own goals.
In addition, the current playoff MVP, Conn Smythe Trophy, tied the club record for longest Stanley Cup home winning streak. In the current Stanley Cup, Vasilevsky played 15 matches and has ten wins.
Nikita Kucherov, who scored the second goal in the last match, scored in the third consecutive playoff game, which was personally the best.
He also became the sixth player to score at least three points in 20 Stanley Cup games. Wayne Gretzky tops the list with at least three points in 59 games.
But the main achievement of Kucherov, perhaps, was a repeat of the record of legendary forwards Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux – the Russian became the third player in the last 35 years to score 50 points in three seasons in the NHL playoffs.
The connection between Kucher and Gretzky was spotted by nine-time Stanley Cup winner Scotty Bowman.
“Very few men have such talent. Gretzky had exactly the same talent. What they said about Wayne, the same can now be said for Nikita,” said the legendary coach.
The fifth game of the series will be played on 10 June. Kick-off at Madison Square Garden arena is scheduled for 03:00 Moscow time.