The Penguins team from Pittsburgh, represented by Latvian striker Teodors Blugers, closed the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup on Wednesday.
The Penguins gave up the New York Islanders 3: 5 (2: 2, 1: 3, 0: 0) in the Stanley Cup Eastern Division semi-finals in the sixth game, which was 4-2 to four wins in the series.
The Latvian national hockey team has applied for the maximum number of hockey players for the world championship, thus Blugers will not be able to help the national team in the championships taking place in Riga.
The guests were determined to win the sixth match, because after less than a minute and a half they had reached 1: 0. True, four minutes later, Antoni Bolivier equalized, but in the second half of the period, Jade Gencell’s goal was answered by Bald Palmier.
Also in the second minute of the second third, the Penguins took the lead, accurately throwing Jason Zaker. However, the game turned in the opposite direction. In the ninth minute of the period, Brock Nelson and Ryan Paloks scored two goals by 13 seconds and took the lead for the home team. In the third minute of the third, Nelson reached 5: 3.
Islanders goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin repelled 34 shots and also won his fourth game in the series, scoring only an average of 1.95 puck in the first round. Tristan Jerry handled 19 New York shots.
Bluger played seven minutes and 24 seconds, one minute and 17 seconds in the minority. In the time allotted to him, the Latvian used two methods of force, blocked one throw, won six of the 14 throws and had a negative efficiency of -1.
In the regular championship, Blugers took part in 43 games, scoring seven goals, giving away 15 assists and accumulating a positive efficiency of +10. In the Stanley Cup, he lost six points in six matches and scored a negative -2.
The two teams met each other eight times in the Eastern Division in the regular championship, six of which were won by “penguins” who were unbeatable in their field. Five of these fights ended with one goal difference.
“Penguins” is the longest active series of elimination tournaments in North American professional sports – the Pittsburgh team “play-off” played for 15 years in a row.
Usually in the NHL regular season, the teams each play 82 matches, but this season the teams each played 56 duels.
