Nichushkin can’t be stopped! He scored a goal again, repeating the achievement of Colorado’s living legends.
November 25, 2023, 10:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Kirill Kaprizov was also finally good, but Minnesota already suffered its sixth consecutive loss.
Things are going very badly for Minnesota this season. The “Wilds” are lagging behind in the Western Conference, the series of defeats before the match with Colorado was five games, there is an obvious crisis among the leaders and, above all, among Kirill Kaprizov, who in his short career in the NHL He has never been so pale as now.
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After traveling to Sweden for exhibition games, Minnesota had plenty of time to reset its biological clock and prepare for a home game against the recent NHL champions. “Colorado” is now doing quite well, constantly fighting with “Winnipeg” and “Dallas” for the leadership in the conference and has already gotten used to the absence of one of the leaders, Gabriel Landeskog.
Of course, it is impossible to replace the Swedish star in the team, but recently a new hero emerged in Colorado – Valery Nichushkin. In today’s game in St. Paul, the Russian spent 27 minutes and 21 seconds on the ice – this is the second indicator in the Avalanche after defenseman Makar! And Valery fully deserves such trust from the coach, because in the second half of November the striker is really “hot”: he scores goals for the sixth consecutive match. “Minnesota” and Marc-Andre Fleury got it done midway through the second period when Nichushkin perfectly placed the handle of his stick on the power play for MacKinnon’s shot.
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In total, Valery took five shots on goal during the game: he was the most dangerous in Colorado. His power-play goal doubled the Avalanche’s lead, but Minnesota quickly found the strength to get back into the game and Kirill Kaprizov became the main inspiration for the “Wilds.” First, the Russian placed his stick perfectly under Rossi’s shot in the unexpected second half of the counterattack.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
And then Kirill, together with his Norwegian friend Zuccarello, set up a power goal for Eriksson Ek.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
Thus, Minnesota recovered and had every chance to ride the wave of success to win and break a long series of defeats. But in the end Colorado was successful. The confident play of goalkeeper Alexander Georgiev in key moments of the match and, of course, the goal of defender McDermid in the 45th minute helped. How the Canadian declared as the seventh defender realized it on the spot! And this is his first goal of the season.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
The score did not change until the end of the game. “Minnesota lost again, although today at least the leaders of the “wild” showed good hockey, and Kaprizov, by the way, set a club record for the longest scoring streak in matches with the same opponent: Kirill scored against Colorado in the sixth game in a row.
Nichushkin also entered club history with his six-game scoring streak. In the last 20 years, only two Avalanche players have had a streak of similar length: Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon. It turns out that today Valery is on a par with the living legends of modern Colorado!
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS