It happened: Russian forward “Washington Capitals” Alexander Ovechkin bypassed legendary Canadian Gordie Howe on the list of the best snipers in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) and became the only follower of another Canadian – Wayne Gretzky!
The regular season game against the Winnipeg Jets made history. At the end of the first period, Ovechkin received a pass from Dylan Strome and passed Czech goalkeeper David Rittich between his hands and legs.
Washington owner Ted Leonsis congratulated Ovechkin on his 801st NHL goal.
“Ovechkin equalized Gordie Howe for the second goal in NHL history. Congratulations Alex! Really Big Eight,” Leonsis wrote on social networks.
After the break, Alexander immediately had the opportunity to double down and thwart Howe’s success, but failed to achieve a zero-to-one.
Throughout the match, the “capitals” had the advantage of the game, so no matter how hard the Winnipeg hockey players tried, they could not spoil the holiday of the spectators gathered in the stands of the Capital One Arena. In the middle of the second twenty-minute period, Ovechkin, assisting Conor Sheary, passed a pre-goal pass to Sonny Milano – 2:0!
At the beginning of the third quarter, Caps’ fourth three were pleased with a goal – with the help of Nick Dowd, Garnet Hathaway and Eric Gustaffson, he brought the score to 3: 0 on the scoreboard, after which the guests managed to return. The intrigue that came to the game with the efforts of Carson Kuhlman and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby – Kevin Stenlund, after the transfers of the partners, narrowed the gap to two and scored.
Before the final siren, Winnipeg head coach Rick Bowness decided to sack the goalkeeper and release a sixth fielder to replace him, Ovechkin eventually took advantage of this and released a historic 802nd disc during the NHL regular season:
Alexander first made a pass to Evgeny Kuznetsov, who was in a better position to shoot directly into the empty net, but the 92nd Caps decided not to leave his teammate without a vacation and returned the puck to him – as a result, Ovechkin scored a record goal with your back to the door!
The whole team decided to share the joy of the new record not only with the captain, but also with their opponents: after the match, every Winnipeg hockey player went to Ovi and shook his hand.
Official Jets social media accounts also noted Ovechkin’s success, wishing him no more head-to-head recordings.
“Congratulations to Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals on a historic night in the NHL. Good luck chasing 894 goals.
We hope that there will be no more in matches against us, Winnipeg said on social networks.
With a double and an assist, Ovechkin was recognized as the first star of the match. The second star was Washington goalkeeper Charlie Lindgren, who made 25 saves after 26 shots on goal. Conor Shiri made two effective passes at the end of the game.
Ovechkin himself said that achieving a clear second place on the list of the best scorers in NHL history would lessen interest in his person.
“Hunch? No, of course, I wanted to finish with the excitement that was all around. It’s not like pressure. Just hype. Constant cameras, microphones. I wanted to score four games in a row. But I couldn’t score even at 100% moments. Now, thank God, it’s over. Continue. meat!” – He quotes the words “Match TV” by Ovechkin.
Rus also said that he does not want to take second place on the list of NHL snipers by throwing in an empty net.
“I gave the puck to Kuznetsov, but he said he did not want to take it,” said journalist Ian Oland about Ovechkin on social networks.
Desiring not to spoil his reputation, Kuznetsov announced his decision to return the disk to his compatriot.
If I scored such a goal, I would probably feel bad and probably half the world would be very angry with me. You know, I really have a lot of haters … it’s a matter of reputation, ”said journalist Samantha Pell, quoting Kuznetsov’s words on Twitter.
After this game, the distance between Ovechkin and Gretzky in the list of the best NHL snipers was reduced to 92 goals. Washington will play its next regular season game away against the New York Rangers, which kicks off at 03:00 Moscow time on the night of December 27-28.
Source: Gazeta
Gregory Robert is a sports aficionado and a writer for “Social Bites”. He provides in-depth coverage of the latest sporting events and trends, offering a unique and knowledgeable perspective on the world of sports.