Thursday, 21 Apr 2022. 00:34
Alexander Ovechkin put his name to the all-time leading scorers Wednesday night in the Capitals’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Golden Knights.
With two goals, Ovechkin reached the 50-goal plateau for the ninth time in his career and he becomes only the third player in NHL history to achieve the feat, joining Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy.
Ovi first rattled the ropes early in the second period to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead.
Then, midway through the third period, Ovechkin scored the famous 50th goal to tie the game at 3-3 and send everyone into overtime.
He became the fourth player this season to reach the plateau, following Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl and Chris Kreider.
It was Shea Theodore who played the heroes thanks to a superb individual rise in overtime. He slipped between TJ Oshie and Lars Eller, before slotting the puck into the top of the backhand net to end the game.
This victory in Vegas therefore allows the team to keep its hopes of participating in the playoffs alive. The Knights are within two points of the Stars and a playoff berth. Dallas, however, has a game in hand.
In the first half, Evgeny Kuznetsov opened the scoring for Washington, before watching Alec Martinez bring everyone back to square one.
Evgenii Dadonov and Chandler Stephenson scored the other goals for Vegas in the win.
Goalkeeper Robin Lehner was kicked out of the game after 20 minutes and only one goal allowed.
Logan Thompson, who took over, stopped 13 pucks on 15 shots.
The Kraken surprises the Avalanche
Kole Lind, Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde all scored in the first period and the Seattle Kraken held on to win 3-2 against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.
Philipp Grubauer has stopped 25 shots for the Kraken, who have won their last three games.
Matty Beniers picked up an assist to bring his streak to at least one point to four to start his career.
Cale Makar and Artturi Lehkonen scored for the Avalanche and Pavel Francouz made 26 saves.
At the end of the third period, the former Canadian jumped on a return in front of the net to reduce the gap to one goal and give hope to Colorado, but it was too little too late.
The Avalanche, guaranteed first place in the Western Conference, have lost their last two games. The Avalanche are tied for the top of the NHL standings with the Florida Panthers at 116 points.
The Avalanche were able to count on the services of Nazem Kadri (upper body) for the first time since March 31. However, they had to deal with the absence of Mikko Rantanen who was left out due to a virus.
Alex DeBrincat reached 40 goals for the second time in his career and gave the Blackhawks a 4-3 overtime win over the Coyotes.
DeBrincat was forgotten behind the Arizona defense and he completed a nice pass from his faithful companion Patrick Kane.
The Coyotes scared the Blackhawks by scoring back-to-back third period goals to force overtime.
First Nathan Smith scored his first career NHL goal and then, minutes later, Anton Stralman also scored to tie the game 3-3.
In the first period, Jake McCabe and Dominik Kubalik gave the Hawks a two-goal lead.
Alex Vlasic hit the target for the first time in his career in the second period for the Blackhawks.
Barrett Hayton scored the Coyotes’ other goal.
In goal, Karel Vejmelka kept the Coyotes in the game despite the loss, with a 36-save performance.