Ivan Demidov scored an assist hat-trick for the first time in the NHL, breaking a three-game streak without scoring! The Russian forward seemed to have found his favorite opponent, scoring three points in the game against Vancouver for the second time in his career. He also helped Montreal win the Canadian clash and rewrote Canadiens history.

Demidov continues to fight for the Calder Trophy

More recently, Montreal had a slight crisis, but now the Canadian team is showing good results and is at the top of the Eastern standings. And in the last seven matches, the Canadiens won five victories, thanks to which they completely joined the race for leadership in the conference. The only thing that could upset the team’s fans a little was the lack of effective actions from Russian forward Ivan Demidov.

The striker had an impressive five-game points streak, during which he scored 3+6. And after the shock period, Demidov got on the scoresheet only once in five matches, giving an assist in the game against the second team in the West – Dallas. At the same time, he continued to maintain leadership in the list of top scorers among newcomers. However, the competition for the Calder Trophy this season is so high that Ivan should have started scoring points again as soon as possible.

And in the home match against Vancouver, the Russian managed to do it!

Demidov’s assist hat-trick

In the confrontation between the Canadian clubs, the Canucks opened the scoring when Elias Pettersson scored in the 12th minute. The Canadiens responded with a power play goal at the end of the game period: Noah Dobson converted their numerical advantage. After the break, Vancouver took the lead again thanks to the efforts of Evander Kane.

And then “Montreal” had a shocking period, hitting Nikita Tolopilo’s goal twice in just 20 seconds! At the same time, Alexandre Carrier scored both times, scoring a double at lightning speed. Demidov also took part in Currier’s second goal. The Russian passed the ball under someone else’s blue line, Juraj Slafkovskiy burst into the zone at speed and shot along the goal, Carrier put his stick and completed the pass with one touch – 2:2.

Ivan Demidov and Philip Gronek / Photo: © Minas Panagiotakis / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Despite the obvious failure, the Vancouver players found the strength not to fall apart completely. And in the middle of the period, Max Sasson equalized the score again. In the third period, the Canucks again managed to concede twice in a short period of time. This time Montreal needed a little more time – 38 seconds.

First, Mike Matheson put the hosts ahead, and then Demidov from behind the goal passed a cool pass to Slafkovsky, who hit the near corner of the goal with an accurate wrist shot. And after a few shifts, the Russian forward scored an assist hat-trick for the first time in his career!

In the 47th minute, Ivan made a gorgeous cross pass with an awkward, precise shot onto the stick to Oliver Kapanen, who completed the counterattack with one touch. Demidov scored three points in one game for only the second time in the NHL.

The most interesting thing is that the last time he did this was also in the match against the Canucks on October 25. Then the forward scored a goal and scored two goals. The Russian also became only the third Montreal rookie in the last decade to score an assist hat-trick.

The Canadiens eventually won with a score of 6:3, and Demidov (10+29) secured the lead in the list of top scorers for rookies. Anaheim forward Beckett Senneke, who is in second place, is 5 points behind.