Nashville goalkeeper Askarov makes his NHL debut and misses four goals from Montreal

Nikita Kucherov returned to the top of the list of the best assistants of the season, Mikhail Sergachev beat the American, Artemy Panarin brought a strong-willed victory to the Rangers in an almost lost match, Kirill Kaprizov approached a symbolic hundred goals in his career. and Yaroslav Askarov made his brilliant debut in the NHL. About the main events of the big match day of the main hockey league of the world – in the material of RIA Novosti Sport.

One of the most interesting matches of the day more than justified its poster. Today’s match between Tampa and Vancouver, which is in principle very rare in the NHL, had it all: a peppy start from the Canucks and a steady loss of advantage for them, a barrage of goals from both teams, a fight and Andrey Vasilevski’s fateful save. . Guests from Vancouver quickly opened up the score, but took the role of making up at the start of the second period. “Tampa” did not regret it and in the middle of the third 20 minutes closed the issue of the result of the meeting at 5:2. Although the “killer whales” could make a comeback: in the last five minutes of regular time, “Vancouver” scored two goals and almost scored another. Vasilevsky survived an unexpected fiasco a second before the Tampa siren.

Separately, we note Nikita Kucherov. The Russian striker earns points in four games in a row. He had a goal and an assist today. The assist in the puck division by Stephen Stamkos was Nikita’s 44th of the season – according to this indicator, Kuch caught up with Connor McDavid, the best assistant in the championship. Stamkos came close to 500 goals in the NHL.

Mikhail Sergachev also made an assist. Lightning’s head guard appeared in his 400th career NHL game, marking his 30th issue of the season. The exhibition also showed itself in hand-to-hand combat, happily punching Garland in the face after meeting the American Vasilevsky.

Andrey Kuzmenko also did not leave the ice without effective actions – he has one assist to his credit. Not only because Kucherov praised him and prophesied Andrei a great future in the NHL.

Throughout the current championship, the “New York Rangers” have been experiencing noticeable instability, not only in terms of results, but also in terms of gameplay components. Gerard Gallan is still looking for effective combinations and his decisions often have a negative impact on the team’s playing performance. “The Rangers” came to visit “Dallas” today. The Stars aren’t an example of stability either, but they’re leading the Western Conference. Additionally, the Stars remain extremely uncomfortable opponents for teams like the Rangers.

In the next head-to-head match, “Dallas” was close to leaving New York with a minimal and “dry” win: the visitors were 1-0 until the last second of regular time. However, K’Andre Miller took the match to overtime in the 6v5 match, where Artemiy Panarin came to the fore. Khlebushku needed some more room on the ice to score the winning goal. Artemy caught the puck in the opponent’s goal, left the defender behind, and rolled the puck to Adam Fox, who was just in time for the attack. He didn’t miss at close range.

It’s interesting how much Panarin emotionally celebrates this goal – he has twice depicted the signature move that often marks his own abandoned goals.

Yet another brilliant comeback in another match in New York. And he will be happy fans of the Rangers, because their hostile neighbor, the Islanders, has lost. The “Islanders” took the “Minnesota” Kirill Kaprizov, and the Russian super forward showed them a real master class.

The “Islanders” opened the score in the second part of the first period, with Scott Mayfield scoring without the participation of Alexander Romanov. And for the success of the hosts of the UBS Arena, things went smoothly, but at the very end of the meeting, neither the “islanders” nor personally Ilya Sorokin, reflecting shot after shot, had enough strength. “Minnesota” posted three goals to the “Isles” gate in just eight minutes of regular time. Kaprizov took part in both. First, Kirill assisted Sam Steele and recorded the 50th point of the season, and then following Alexander Ovechkin’s instructions, he finished his opponent with an accurate shot into the empty net. In total, Kaprizov has 5 shots on goal, a hit, a goal and an assist, as well as the title of first star of the match. The Russian is one goal away from the emblematic mark of 100 goals in his NHL career.

The main event of the day for Russian hockey fans is Yaroslav Askarov’s debut in the NHL. Two or three years ago, he was called one of the most talented goalkeepers in the world and predicted a great future for him in professional hockey. The young Russian was so believed in that Nashville didn’t hesitate to spend the summer of 2020 on him the 11th pick of the NHL drafts – in all of league history, no Russian goalkeeper has been so highly voted. And of all the goalkeepers before Yaroslav, only Carey Price was drafted higher in 2005. But then the discourse about the goalkeeper changed. Askarov never reached the first place in the SKA system, at some point he became the hero of Internet memes and, in principle, received one after another negative comments from the outside.

Now Yaroslav got a second wind just in time. Not just like that, he wrote on his social network: “An exciting journey has begun”. On the eve of Askarov was called to participate in the AHL All-Star game, and after a while he received an invitation to the Nashville base. This happened due to Kevin Lankinen’s illness and the Russian became the backup for Juuse Saros. Finn rested today and watched from the bench with his tongue on his shoulder as his new role partner battled the “Montreal” attacks.

In his NHL debut, Askarov made 31 saves, some of them spectacular. The Russian player repeatedly showed great tension during the match, curling along the goal line, eliminating chances that should have ended with the opponent’s goal, and also robbed Yevgeny Dadonov. “Montreal”‘s Russian forward was confident in scoring, but Askarov was faster.

The Nashville rookie, on the other hand, conceded 4 goals and led the Predators to lose. However, it is precisely the defense of the “predators”, not Askarov, that should be blamed for all the goals. Claims against the Russian goalkeeper can only be on the second puck when Yaroslav unsuccessfully exits the gate and hands the bullet to his opponent.

One way or another, the debut turned out to be brilliant, and Askarov himself deserved a good press about himself both in Russia and in America.