Ovechkin countered a stolen goal with a game-winning puck and a unique record. Ovechkin’s overtime goal gave Washington victory over Philadelphia.

Washington Capitals – Philadelphia Flyers – 3:2 Overtime

The next game of the NHL regular season was marked by a long-awaited victory for Washington and the brilliant game of the capital’s captain, Alexander Ovechkin (much more valuable to Russian fans). The winner of Caps was his puck in overtime.

At this meeting, “Washington” came with a series of defeats that numbered four games. The beginning of the confrontation with Philadelphia was also not very pleasant for Ovechkin’s team – already in the sixth minute Morgan Frost put the “pilots” forward. However, the Capitals did not hesitate to respond and equalized in a power play five minutes later.

In an ideal world, Ovechkin would score, leaving the goalkeeper behind in place and sending the puck into the net. In the lane, however, Markus Johansson “stealed” the captain’s goal by touching him.

But Alexander himself was not upset, he had almost the whole match ahead of him. And it was tough for the Capitals: Patrick Brown, assisted by Ivan Provorov in the second period, put Philadelphia back in the lead, and Sonny Milano saved Washington from defeat with just a few minutes of regular time. By Evgeny Kuznetsov’s pass.

The outcome of the meeting was decided in extension, and here no one could interfere with Ovechkin, who, after a pass from Dylan Strome, drove the winning puck into the Flyers’ goal – from his “office” circle, as usual, on the left kick-off. After the match, the Russian said that he had no right not to score.

“Obviously I have a great transfer. I just had to hit the opponent’s goal,

– quoting Ovechkin official site NHL.

Thanks to this goal, the Russian striker achieved a unique success. He became the first player in NHL history to score 25 overtime goals. However, do not forget that even before that, Ovechkin was the record holder for this indicator, since no one except him could score 20 goals in overtime. The closest to that mark was Sidney Crosby, who finished his career in the NHL Jaromir Jagr – with 19 goals scored in overtime.

Ovechkin already has 790 goals in his overseas career. And this is probably the main statistical indicator for those who support Alexander and follow his career. Ovi continues to pursue the “eternal” sniper record of Wayne Gretzky, who once scored 894 goals in his career. Considering that in a rare year he did not knock down “fifty kopecks” in a season, the Russians in general did not have much left.

But now the urgent task is to reach second place in the list of top goalscorers in league history, which has so far belonged to Gordie Howe with 801 goals. 11 goals separate the “Washington” captain from this bar.

By another indication, the Big Eight are still behind Jagr, but the legendary Czech is slowly approaching his career record for winning goals. Jagr scored 135 and Ovechkin 123 goals.

We also note that the goal scored by Johansson brought the Russians one assist point. Thus, Ovi made his 639th career assist. But here he is far from the top: Ovechkin’s figure is 73rd among all players in NHL history. He outstripped Dave Taylor and caught up with career Ottawa forward Claude Giroud.

And finally, one more statistical nuance that many don’t take seriously: the utility indicator. Until recently, Ovechkin was the worst in season performance of any player in the league. However, he finished the match against Philadelphia with “+1” and left the last line. He is currently -13th throughout the season, ahead of Ottawa’s Drake Baterson (-15) and Chicago’s Philip Kurashev (-14).

Pittsburgh Penguins – Calgary Flames – 2:1 B

In this game, the home team also won, and also – after regular time. As in the Washington game, the decisive goal was scored by Russia’s Evgeni Malkin. The only difference is that unlike Ovechkin, he scores in penalty shootouts, not in overtime. After the match, Malkin talked about how he outstripped Calgary goalkeeper Daniel Vladarzh.

“I decided to cheat and take an uncomfortable hand because this is a great goalie waiting for a direct shot.

I wouldn’t call my shot an annoyingly perfect shot, I have a big stick bend. But I said to myself: why not,

— said the Russian.

The previous game was Gino’s 1,000th in the NHL. game, and he came in a road game against Chicago. A ceremony was held at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh before the 1001st game for the Russian forward, who spent his entire overseas career at the Penguins camp. All the players of the team went to the rehearsal in sweaters with “Malkin” written on their backs. The hockey player’s wife and son attended the ceremony in person, and in the video shown at the stadium, his parents and older brother returned to congratulate the player. Also, compatriot Alexander Ovechkin congratulated Malkin.

“You played a thousand games for a team, which is a huge success. I wish you and your family good luck and all the best. see you on the ice

– Ovechkin said these words to Evgeny.

“I have a great life. I played with great guys who always supported me. I moved to America 17 years ago and now I have some very good friends here! It was an incredible evening for me and my family. Thanks to my teammates, “Malkin commented on the celebration in his honor.

There is some symbolism in the fact that Malkin was the author of the winning goal in the match against Calgary. Captain “Pittsburgh” Sidney Crosby said it couldn’t be otherwise.

“It was amazing. I didn’t want anyone else to win this game. The whole evening was incredible – like the last few days to be honest.

I was happy to see Malkin score and give us the win.”

Crosby agreed.

Anaheim Ducks 3-2 New York Rangers

In this game, the Ducks barely beat the Rangers, breaking a three-game losing streak. The hosts first agreed, but then scored three goals in a row, one of which was scored by Dmitry Kulikov. The Russian player also made an assist in this match.

However, it is worth noting the Russian player of the other team.

Artemy Panarin, one of the Rangers leaders, also replenished his personal account with an assist, marking his 400th career in the NHL.

Thus, he got into the top 5 unprepared hockey players who quickly surpassed this mark. Doing so took Panarin 529 games and Wayne Gretzky tops the list like the others with 290 games.

New York Islanders 3-0 Edmonton Oilers

“Islanders” dried “Edmonton” on ice. Jean-Gabriel Pazho scored a double goal for the home team, Sebastian Aho became the author of another goal. However, the real hero of the match was Russian goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin.

In the game played with “Oilculer”, the goalkeeper made 49 saves and disabled the game. This result was the second in club history in terms of saves in a game – only Glenn Healy achieved more: he fired 51 shots per game in 1990 and at the same time kept the door intact.

Sorokin is rightfully considered the first star of the match with Edmonton.

Carolina Hurricanes 0-4 Arizona Coyotes

In another match, the Russian goalkeeper turned out to be the injured side: Carolina goalkeeper Pyotr Kochetkov, who signed a four-year contract with the club for $8 million the day before, missed three goals from Arizona. The fourth “coyotes” had already been thrown into an empty net.

At the same time, the goalkeeper did everything he could. One of Kochetkov’s saves was the highlight of the day: the Russian player managed to hit the puck with his stick in the fall after Travis Boyd’s shot.

Other matches of the match day

Minnesota Wild 6-1 Winnpeg Jets
Buffalo Sabers 6-2 Saint Louis Blues
Columbus Blue Jackets – Montreal Canadiens – 1:3
Florida Panthers 5-2 Boston Bruins
New Jersey Devils 1-2 Toronto Maple Leafs
Detroit Red Wings 3-0 Nashville Predators
Dallas Stars 6-4 Chicago Blackhawks
Seattle Craken – Sag-Jose Sharks – 8:5
Colorado Avalanche 3-4 Vancouver Canucks
Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 Ottawa Senators