Only two months have passed since Carolina fans called on the club to get rid of Andrei Svechnikov. Now the Russian forward is demonstrating an incredible level in the NHL. Our hero declassed the cool goalkeeper in a minute.

This hasn’t happened in the league for 35 years!

Record performance

The beginning of the regular season was difficult for both Carolina and Svechnikov himself, on whom great hopes were once pinned. The big forward burst into the league powerfully. His lacrosse goal against Calgary in 2019 will forever be remembered, because before Andrey the league had never seen anything like it.

But this season the Russian didn’t get off to a good start at all. There was even talk of a possible exchange. But now Svechnikov has put effective actions on stream. At the same time, things started to improve for the Hurricanes. Before the road game against New Jersey, the team shared first place in the Eastern Conference with Tampa Bay.

The meeting against the “devils” did not start very well for the guests. The hosts had the initiative and were closer to scoring. It’s good that in the first period goalkeeper Frederik Andersen looked great on the last line.

Only in the second period did the spectators see the first goal, and it was scored by the Hurricanes. Svechnikov joined the attack at a second pace and scored the puck after Sebastian Aho’s spectacular turnaround pass. The Russian-Finnish combination also worked in the second scoring attack. Again Aho passed to Svechnikov, who missed.

— We started a little slow, but then showed a better game. Within a minute, we had several opportunities, and Svechnikov realized them. This helped us settle in a little. After that, we played quite confidently,” Carolina head coach Rod Brindamore commented on Andrei’s double.

It is important to understand that only 57 seconds passed between the Russians’ goals. For the second time this season, Svechnikov needed less than a minute to score a double. This has not happened in the history of Carolina since the move from Hartford. In franchise history, the last time Pat Verbeek scored two such quick doubles in one season. This happened in the 1990/91 regular season.

Andrey Svechnikov / Photo: © Andrew Mordzynski / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

“All I had to do was shoot the puck.”

Andrey did not stop there. At the beginning of the final period, the forward could have scored the third goal, and a very beautiful one at that. He again went for a lacrosse goal, but Jakub Markström, who was in contention for the NHL’s best goalkeeper award in 2022, reacted in time, closing the “nine” with his powerful body.

But the Russian still scored a hat-trick in this meeting. In the 56th minute, Andrei put the finishing touches on a pass from the same Aho, allowing Carolina to win an important victory with a score of 4:1. After the game, the hockey player, who became the first star of the meeting, only modestly thanked his partners.

— My front three with Aho and Jarvis played just great. Sebastian created space for me in all three goals, all I had to do was score the puck. An amazing game on their part,” the NHL website quotes the Russian as saying.

The skill of our hockey player was highly appreciated in the league as well. On the main page of the NHL website, the press service posted a huge photo of Svechnikov, making it clear who the main star is, at least based on the results of the game day.