Hockey
Kucherov’s brilliant pass in front of the siren sentenced the opponent. The goalkeeper almost cried
The Russian striker, who started the season with an unpleasant injury, approached the Stanley Cup in excellent shape. He decides the outcome of the second match in a row!
The Russian forward “Tampa Bay” Nikita Kucherov once again made hockey fans thrill with delight. In Game 2 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals against Florida, he scored a great pass just 4 seconds before the siren! Panther goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky did not expect such a trick from his compatriot.
The current owner of the Stanley Cup “Tampa Bay” took another step towards the coveted trophy: in the second meeting in a row, Florida was defeated. And if in the first match the “lightning” did not leave the “panthers” a single chance, crushing them in the third period and ending the meeting with a score of 4:1, then in this match the owners of the ice were simply incredibly unlucky. Getting an own goal with 4 seconds left in the period is like some kind of curse! And the curse even has a name – Nikita Kucherov, who turns into Florida’s personal pest.
But the Russian managed to put an end to the plans of the Panthers at the end of the meeting. In the beginning, the struggle was equal. Until the Panthers got sent off. Corey Parry managed to realize it in the first period, who put a stick at the gate after a shot by Stephen Stamkos. By the way, the striker could fall out of the clip at the very last moment – on the rollout after a practice shot on goal, the puck bounced off Perry in the face.
He needed the help of a doctor, and he took part in the match with a small wound. Curiously, this is the reason why Florida has an ironclad rule to always wear helmets when players are out on the ice, even for practice. Maybe Tampa should take an example from its neighbors?
In the second period, the Panthers began to play more aggressively, and the Lightning gave the opponents as many as three chances to convert the majority. One of the fines was on account of Kucherov, who, in an uncharacteristically tough manner, knocked down Brandon Montour, who literally turned over in the air. But the implementation of the extra in this playoffs, “Florida” does not succeed in any way – since the beginning of the drawing, she had 25 opportunities for this. However, the Panthers do not really need an extra player in order to score: they managed to restore the score in equal compositions at the end of the second period.
In the third twenty-minute period, the fight continued on an equal footing: the Tampa players, one by one, went to the locker room after courageously throwing themselves under the opponents’ throws. At the beginning of the match, Eric Cernak left for an inspection, then the captain of the Lightnings, Stephen Stamkos. When he left his team in the minority in the last three minutes, it seemed that Florida would still open the scoring on powerplay goals. But Tampa survived, and Kucherov decided that it was unnecessary to transfer the meeting to overtime.
Having taken the puck thrown on the side outside the gate, he drew the attention of two Panther players and, without looking, with the back of the stick, accurately put it on the projectile to Ross Colton, who shot Bobrovsky close.
“I can’t believe he put the puck on my stick for sure,” the scorer said after the match. – After I gave up, I told him 10 times: “Are you kidding or what?” I literally had no idea how he did it!
The Russian goalkeeper did not expect such a lightning attack, until the last looking out for the puck outside the gate. After the missed goal, there was no face on him. Indeed, in order to recoup, Florida had 4 seconds left!
The miracle did not happen, “Tampa” took away the second victory in a row from Sunrise. And again, as in the first match, all the enthusiasm of the fans went to Kucherov, who became a specialist in masterpiece passes in the NHL, increasing the number of points in the current playoffs to 10.
“It was some kind of unrealistically magical pass, I just have no words,” seaghost78 wrote on Twitter.
“The passes Kucherov is throwing are incredible,” TampaBayTre continued. – This is, without a doubt, one of the best hockey players in the world.
Source: Sportbox
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