In the match against the Rangers, Nikita Kucherov won the duel at Artemy Panarin without a chance and returned the first line in the list of the best league scorers! He also repeated the achievement of Wayne Gretzka himself!

Problems “Rangers”

Rangers almost half of the season fight for a place in the playoffs. Especially desperately played by the Russian striker Artemy Panarin, who has recently demonstrated a fiery form. For the segment since March 2, Panarin spent 18 matches and scored 24 (11+13) points! Only Robert Thomas (27) and Nikita Kucherov (28) were recruited in the League (28).

But while the team of Peter Laviolett does not manage to climb the first eight of the East. Before a meeting with Tampa, Rangers lagged behind Montreal, taking eighth place, six points. As for Lighting, the club led by John Cooper closes the top 4 of the same conference and is even able to compete for the second line. Excellent results of “lightning” are associated with the outstanding game of Kucherov.

The unique achievement of Kucherov

The Russian striker “Tampa” showed itself already in the 14th minute. Braden Point during the majority draw burst into the zone at speed and fired strongly onto the long tank, and Kucherov closed the transfer to the empty gates without any problems, upsetting Igor Systerkin.

Nikita Kucherov (in the foreground) / Photo: © Bruce Bennett / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Again, the striker fell into the meeting protocol at the end of the game segment, when Lighting was already led with a score of 2: 0. Again, the guests managed to realize a numerical advantage: in the 15th minute, the Russian gave a tricky program to Jake Gunzel, and he immediately transferred to Pointa, which he effectively completed the combination.

In the second period, Panarin also connected, who tried to bring the intrigue to the match and save the Rangers. At the beginning of the game segment, Artemy threw it towards the gate and hit Mica Zibanezhada into the horse, from which the puck bounced into the net – 1: 3.

However, after the second break, Tampa showed that she was not going to give the opponent a chance of a Cumback. At the 56th minute, Lighting realized the third majority in the match! And again, Kucherov distinguished himself in the special brigade. This time, the Russian hockey player repeated the last draw: he completed the pass on Gunzel, who was on duty on the nearby rod, and he found Point’s club.

Nikita submitted a completely unique achievement – he became only a fourth player who, in three seasons in a row, drafted 80+ assistants. Previously, only Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffee and Bobby Orra managed to do this. A great company has a Russian!

– This is just another stunning statistics, which will eventually make it a member of the Hall of Glory. Just do not perceive it for granted, because he is a really special player, ”the Cooper of the attacker noted.

And after a few shifts, the guests increased the gap to four goals and put an end to the match – 5: 1. As for Kucherov (115), he caught up with Nathan McKinnon and now divides the first line with him in the list of the best scorers. At the same time, Tampa spent less for the match than the Colorado, so Nikita has every chance of overtaking the Canadian.

But at the Rangers the situation has become very bad. There are five matches left until the end of the “regular one”, and the lag behind Montreal is simply huge. So far, everything develops so that Kucherov in this meeting deprived Panarin and Shesterkin of the last chances of the playoffs.