Capitals’ captain and left winger Alex Ovechkin made history tonight while leading Washington to a 4-2 victory over Metropolitan Division foe, the Carolina Hurricanes.
While putting the Capitals up 2-0 on the Hurricanes, Ovechkin scored his 50th goal of the season. The goal came just 11:12 into the game. Ovechkin’s historic goal makes him just the sixth NHL player to have six or more 50+ goal seasons. The score puts him in the same historical category with Mike Bossy (9 seasons), Wayne Gretzky (9), Marcel Dionne (6), Guy Lafleur (6), and Mario Lemieux (6). All of who are Hall of Famer’s.
“Every year, it’s harder and harder,” Ovechkin said about scoring 50 goals six times in his career. “But it’s a huge accomplishment with those names up there.”
Ovechkin is just the fourth player in NHL history to score six 50+ goal in a season in his first 10 years in the NHL. He’s also the fourth player to do so before the age of 30.
When asked about how he felt assisting on Ovechkin’s historic goal, Capitals’ center Evgeny Kuznetsov replied, “If you win something, it’s big for you, you have to make something for your friends.”
Ovechkin now has 472 goals in his NHL career. While this ties Washington’s 1990 draft pick Peter Bondra for the team’s all time leading scorer, Ovechkin reached the feat in 755 games. This is 206 games less than it took Bondra to reach the top of the franchise list (961).
“The match-ups he has faced every night and to be able to produce through that… just an incredible player, a treat to play beside,” Capitals’ center Brooks Laich said about Ovechkin. “He ties the franchise record tonight and gets his 50th. Some nights it’s just a lot of fun to have him as a teammate.”
“His all around game is much more noticeable,” Laich went on.
The Hurricanes cut the Caps lead to just one and then eventually tied the game at two in the first 10:33 of the second period.
A great cross crease pass from left winger Jason Chimera to Laich with 2:54 left in the second gave the Capitals the lead back. It was 82 seconds later when right winger Joel Ward found the back of the net after a cross crease pass from Ovechkin.
The assist on the Ward goal is Ovechkin’s 418th career assist which gets him past center Michal Pivonka and into second on the Capitals franchise assists list. He only trails teammate Nicklas Backstrom (422) for most assists as a Capital.
One of tonight’s referees, Brad Meier, reached a milestone of his own by refereeing in his 1,000th NHL game.