Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has been named the NHL’s “Third Star” for the month of February, the NHL announced today.
Ovechkin led the NHL in goals (10), points (17), power-play goals (5) and shots on goal (68) in February. He registered points in 10 of his 14 appearances during the month, finding the back of the net in eight of those contests. Ovechkin recorded four multi-point performances, highlighted by three points (2g, 1a) against the St. Louis Blues on Feb. 1 and four points (2g, 2a) at Anaheim on Feb. 15. He also notched a pair of game-winning goals – in a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 5 and in a 5-1 triumph over the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 19.
Ovechkin scored his 30th and 31st goals of the season on Feb. 1 against St. Louis, joining Mike Gartner (first 15 seasons), Wayne Gretzky (13), Jari Kurri (10) and Mike Bossy (10) as the only players in NHL history to score 30 or more goals in each of their first 10 NHL seasons. In addition, Feb. 1 marked Ovechkin’s 94th career multi-goal game, passing Peter Bondra (93) for first place on the Capitals franchise multi-goals game list. Since 2005-06, the only players who are within 40 of Ovechkin’s multi-goal-game total (95) are Jarome Iginla (66) and Sidney Crosby (61). The 6’3”, 235-pound left wing leads the NHL in goals (39), shots (306) and power-play goals (18), ranks tied for first in game-winning goals (8), tied for fifth in points (62) and eighth in hits (201). Ovechkin has earned 12 points in his last 10 games (2/8-2/27: 7g, 5a) and has scored 23 goals in his last 28 games (12/29-2/27: 23g, 11a).