Artemi Panarin brought his New York Rangers victory over the Islanders

Russian New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin became the hero of one of the most remarkable matches of the NHL regular season. He scored the game-winning goal in overtime against the New York Islanders, adding two assists, in a game played at Metlife Stadium that drew a whopping crowd of nearly 80,000.

Shortly after the end of the match against the Islanders, Artemi Panarin admitted to reporters that the moment he realized that scored, the emotions were so strong that he could hardly hold back his tears. A strange admission at first glance from the famous forward, who is no stranger to hitting someone else’s goal or helping his teammates hit them, and who in the current championship, with 32 goals and 42 assists, ranks fifth in the scoring race. But everything is clear.

This performance was too special for Panarin.

The match between the two New York clubs took place as part of the so-called Stadium Series, which supports and develops the NHL’s long-standing tradition of occasionally staging matches outdoors, in huge stadiums designed not for hockey, but for completely different sports.

This February series consisted of two games at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, home of the wildly popular National Football League franchises the New York Jets and New York Giants.

In the first on Saturday, the New Jersey Devils (strictly speaking, the arena is located in his home state) dealt with the Philadelphia Flyers – 6: 3 – in front of 70,328 fans. The next audience was even larger. According to official NHL data, it amounted to 79,690 spectators. And this is the third highest figure in the history of the league, despite the fact that more than four dozen outdoor matches have been played in it in modern history. The record of 105,491 fans was set in 2015 at the Detroit Red Wings’ game with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Next up is the 2020 Nashville Predators vs. Dallas Stars, with 85,630 in the stands.

The specific atmosphere was combined with the specific plot of the neighbor’s match. Yes, it was, strictly speaking, just a hair-raising plot.

The Rangers opened the scoring very quickly, but in the first period the Islanders got three in response to their goal, and after the break they increased their advantage to a large one – 4:1.

Then his opponents reduced the gap to a minimum thanks to two goals from Vincent Trocheck (once assisted by Panarin). However, already in the final twenty minutes, Russian Islanders defender Alexander Romanov provided his club with a seemingly solid margin of safety. And he didn’t want to melt.

The Islanders were ruined by deletions in the end. Rangers coach Peter Laviolette added another skater to his power play by benching goaltender Igor Shesterkin to improve his power play chances. And the risk was worth it. His opponents got close to the Islanders when Chris Kreider sent Panarin’s shot into the net, and then, a minute and a half before the siren, Mika Zibanejad missed Islanders goalkeeper Igor Sorokin with a shot from a tight angle.

The overtime turned out to be amazingly short – only ten seconds, containing one single episode, but very rich in all sorts of nuances. Artemy Panarin, intercepting someone else’s pass, found himself in front of the goal of his compatriot Ilya Sorokin. Sorokin, a great goalkeeper, desperately tried to figure out the forward’s maneuvers, but Panarin was still able to go around him in an arc. Meanwhile, defender Noah Dobson was already trying to block the ribbon.

Panarin, at first leaning into it, nevertheless pierced the puck on target. However, the hockey players who rushed to the epicenter of the decisive battle had already managed to move the goal to the side. So the referees had to study a video replay of the moment, which convinced them that the goal should be counted. He brought the Rangers a victory, which strengthened their leadership in the Metropolitan Division, and made the photo of a happy Panarin the main one on the hockey pages of all leading North American media resources.

Alexey Dospehov