“Penguins” at home with 7:3 (1:2, 6:0, 0:1); defeated Tampa Bay “Lightning” team, but Blügers made it 4:2 in the 17th minute of the second period and was recognized as the third star of the game.
At the end of the second period, the home team scored five goals in the last five minutes, but in total they scored six times in the second half of the game, which was the first time since 2002.
Blügers spent 12 minutes on the field, of which two minutes and 16 seconds he played in the minority. The Latvian had three shots on goal, two power plays, one intercepted puck, one error, won three out of five shots and a positive efficiency coefficient of +2.
This was Bļuger’s second goal of the season, so far the only goal the Latvian striker scored was on December 6 of last year against Columbus “Blue Jackets”, sending the puck into the goal guarded by Elvjas Merzlikins.
In total, this season, Blügers scored two goals in 44 matches, provided eight assists and accumulated a negative efficiency coefficient of -7.
In Sunday’s match, Sidney Crosby, Brian Dumoulin and Evgenii Malkin each scored 1+1, while Drew O’Connor, Jason Zucker and Jeff Carter also scored.
Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point scored 1+1 for the visitors, while Anthony Cirelli scored one goal.
“Penguins” with 67 points in 57 games is in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, while “Lightning” is in fifth position with 78 points in 59 duels.
Meanwhile, Elvis Merzlikin saved 41 shots, but his Columbus “Blue Jackets” could not protect the two-goal lead and lost in overtime.
“Blue Jackets” lost to Minnesota “Wild” on the road with a score of 2:3 (1:0, 1:0, 0:2, 0:1).
In the first period, the “Wild” goalkeeper was beaten by Mathieu Olivier, and in the second period after a little more than three minutes, Liam Foudy doubled the lead.
At the beginning of the third period, the hockey players of the Minnesota team persistently went to the goal guarded by Merzlikin, which resulted in a goal after one minute and 15 seconds of play, reducing the deficit to one goal for Kirila Kaprizov.
On the other hand, after another four minutes and 45 seconds, using the majority, Kaprizovs equalized the result, who also scored the winning goal in overtime and achieved a hat-trick.
Merzlikin managed 41 of 44 shots on goal in this match, saving 93.2% of the shots.
With 44 points in 60 games, the Blue Jackets are in last place in the 16-team Eastern Conference, while the Wild are fifth in the Western Conference with 72 points in the same matches.
The Columbus team will play their next match on Tuesday, when they will face the Buffalo Sabers represented by Zemgus Girgensons.
