“He took the game to another level.” Panarin scored a hat-trick and caught Gretzky
Dmitry Storozhev December 4, 2023, 07:17 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Artemy played a key role in Rangers’ victory and was on par with two club legends.
In one of the few NHL games of the day, the Rangers hosted San Jose. The sign, it seems, is not particularly striking: the leaders of the East, after five victories in the last six games, faced the worst team of this season: where does the intrigue come from? Yes, the “sharks” somewhat fixed the situation and stopped looking so desperate, having won three of the previous four meetings against fairly strong opponents, but it was not at all believed that they could force a fight in the “Blue”. Shirts” on their own court.
However, already in the first half the Sharks managed to take the lead twice. Fortunately for the hosts, they have Artemiy Panarin in their arsenal. The Russian was once again left without any effective action away from home, having remained silent in the previous match against Nashville, but at Madison Square Garden he continued to score points regularly, responding to the two goals of the guests.
How Panarin and other Russians play abroad:
Breakdown of all Russians in the United States. Kucherov is a beast, Ovechkin assaults historic Olympus
At home, Panarin scored for the tenth consecutive game since the start of the season. Thus, the forward ranked second in Rangers history in terms of the duration of said streak, joining Brian Leach (1991/1992 season) and Wayne Gretzky (1996/1997 season). There are five games left before Mike Rogers’ record (1983/1984 season) is repeated.
The example of the New Yorkers’ top scorer was followed by Mika Zibanejad, who put the team ahead a few minutes after Panarin’s second goal. The Swede turned out to be the fastest of all on the San Jose patch and sent the teams to the locker room with the Rangers in the lead. He also helped the Californians equalize the score: midway through the second half, Zibanejad went to serve his punishment for tripping and the “sharks” converted the majority just a second before the forward left the area.
A minute later, Alexi Lafreniere had a chance to put the Rangers ahead, but failed to convert the free kick. But shortly before the second break, Will Kylie regained the lead on the scoreboard for the Blueshirts. From that second on, only the inhabitants of the Big Apple were in the lead, because the third twenty minutes were marked by two more effective actions by Panarin.
First, Artemy scored another goal, scoring the fifth hat-trick of his NHL career and forcing the crowd to part with their hats.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
And then the Russian forward set up K’Andre Miller’s shot, which missed and ended the Rangers’ scoring in this match. As it turned out later, this goal was the winner: “the Blueshirts made their fans nervous by allowing two more San Jose goals.” The author of one of them was another Russian forward, Alexander Barabanov, who played his first NHL game since the end of October.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
But the Sharks did not have time to do more: the Rangers won 6-5 and Panarin, of course, was recognized as the first star of the match. He scored two of his three goals today with a nickel, which is pretty atypical for him. Artemy himself mentioned it after the match: “I approached the goal twice in my life and it worked both times. Maybe I should start listening to the coaches,” the forward commented, as always, not without a bit of humor.
Much more serious spoke Panarin’s teammate, Vincent Trocheck, who once again praised the author of today’s hat-trick: “He was incredible. He somehow took his game to another level and he was already a world-class player.”
The four points scored in the game against San Jose allowed Artemy to move up to fourth place in the NHL scoring race and the Rangers to remain at the top of the East. So far, his symbiosis is working and Broadway fans are clearly waiting for new exploits from the Russian star.
