Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 28th goal during the Caps’ 4-3 last-second win against the Carolina Hurricanes Friday night. Ovechkin rocketed a puck past Cam Ward from his office one second after Justin Faulk’s interference minor expired.
On the night, Ovechkin tallied three points, including a secondary assist on Jay Beagle’s buzzer beater. The Russian machine’s 49 points through 45 games puts him on pace for his first point-per-game showing since the 2014-15 season.
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Ovi reclaims NHL lead in goals! #CapsCanes #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/YSfPMaUuu6
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 13, 2018
Ovechkin’s even-strength goal was a classic Ovi one-timer from the office on the power-play. Nicklas Backstrom got the puck to John Carlson, who put the biscuit right in Ovi’s wheel house for the goal.
Cam Ward had no chance.
“I truly think when he hits his spot it’s kind of an almost unsavable shot,” Blues goaltender Carter Hutton said recently after Ovechkin scored on literally the exact same shot scored at the exact same location as Ward. “I don’t think it’s physically possible when he picks his spot to be able to save it. You have to be cheating or get a piece.”
At age 32, Ovechkin’s goalscoring should be slowing. Instead he’s on target for his eighth career 50-goal season. He looks as fast as he did in his early twenties.
Ovechkin’s consistency is allowing him to achieve NHL history virtually every game he plays. Let’s review what he accomplished just last night.
Thanks to some remarkable durability & one of the most unstoppable shots in NHL history, Alex Ovechkin tied for 3rd on this list with his goal tonight pic.twitter.com/dhdFsPZAzL
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) January 13, 2018
Primarily known for scoring goals & not setting them up, Alex Ovechkin's done it well enough to be closing in on the 500 career assist mark & on Friday moved into 8th here pic.twitter.com/1wfEBwS3vO
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) January 13, 2018
Alex Ovechkin had 1G-2A tonight, tying Joe Thornton for the 2nd most 3-point games over the last 15 seasons (dates back to 2002-03- two seasons before his NHL debut)
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) January 13, 2018
Alex Ovechkin ties Slava Kozlov for the 8th most career assists by a Russian-born player (497) & also Dino Ciccarelli for 48th all-time in career PP points (422)
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) January 13, 2018
Alex Ovechkin scores his 28th goal of the season, taking the NHL lead.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 13, 2018
Ovi is good. Like really good. pic.twitter.com/ZrLvvk9TSl
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 13, 2018
Yup.
