In the regular championship games of the National Hockey League (NHL) on Tuesday, January 24, the Pittsburgh “Penguins” team represented by Teodor Blüger and the Buffalo “Sabres” team of Zemgus Girgenson won the fourth consecutive success. The Latvians, however, were again left without scoring points in these games.
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The “Penguins” defeated the Florida “Panthers” in overtime with a score of 7:6 (3:3, 1:1, 2:2, 1:0). It was the fifth straight game for Pittsburgh.
Blüger played 13:31 minutes, won four of six shots, used a power play twice, blocked one shot, but ended the game with a positive efficiency coefficient of “+1”.
In the resulting battle, the teams scored six goals already in the first period, in which “Penguins” overcame a two-goal deficit. The main hero of the game was Kris Letang, who brought the victory to the “Penguins” 54 seconds before the end of overtime.
Letang had two goals and two assists in the game, while Rickard Rakell, Denton Heinen, Sidney Crosby, Drew O’Connor and Evgeni Malkin scored for the Penguins in regulation. Carter Verhege stood out for the Panthers with two goals, while Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Aaron Ekblad and Colin White each scored.
In another match, the “Sabres” almost lost a four-goal lead, but beat the St. Louis “Blues” 5:3 (3:0, 1:2, 1:1).
Girgenson played 13:58 minutes, made two shots on goal, used one power play, won the only shot, but he has a negative efficiency coefficient of “-1”.
In the first period, Jeff Skinner, Alex Tuck and Owen Power made it 3-0 for the “Sabres” by the tenth minute of the game, but at the beginning of the second period, Tage Thomson increased the advantage of the Buffalo team to 4-0.
Then, within three minutes, Ivan Barbashev and Brayden Shen recovered two goals, but in the 47th second of the last third, Jordan Kyrou reduced the advantage of “Sabres” to a minimum. The Buffalo team saved the victory, 60 seconds before the end of the game, Dylan Cousins sent the puck into the empty goal of the opponent and made it 5-3.
