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John Walton’s epic call of Alex Ovechkin’s 800th career goal

By Chris Cerullo

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December 14, 2022 1:07 am

Alex Ovechkin made hockey history on Tuesday night. The Great Eight tallied three times against the Chicago Blackhawks to hit 800 goals.

Due to the game being on national TV via ESPN, Capitals fans did not get Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin’s voices for the special moment.

Thankfully, the phenomenal John Walton called the game on radio. His soundtrack to number 800 was utterly epic.

Walton’s call was added to video of the goal by Cristiano Simonetta.

Walton was joined by Alan May on the call in Chicago. He started off by casually describing play as the Caps filtered the puck into the offensive zone. John then kicked it into overdrive within seconds as Anthony Mantha turned over a Blackhawk defenseman behind the net, fed the puck in front to Evgeny Kuznetsov, and took a rebound shot before the puck eventually landed on Ovechkin’s tape.

“A shot, they score!” Walton screamed. “And it’s Alex Ovechkin! And it’s 800 goals in the National Hockey League! The bench empties! Alex Ovechkin is the third player in National Hockey League history to score 800 goals! He does it here in Chicago, Illinois on the 13th of December, 2022! History here at the Madhouse on Madison! Alex Ovechkin, Gordie Howe, and Wayne Gretzky are now the only three skaters ever in National Hockey League history to score 800 goals!”

“Absolutely incredible,” May added. “This arena is going nuts right now. You see the amount of hats on the ice – this is so surreal right now. This is absolutely incredible. We were wondering if this could possibly happen going on this trip. He is just absolutely spectacular. He’s not slowing down – number 800.”

Behind the two men’s voices, the crowd inside United Center started an “Ovi, Ovi, Ovi” chant as if the Caps captain had just scored on home ice.

“And a shoutout right now to the fans in Chicago who are amazing and doing Capitals fans justice,” Walton exclaimed. “They are all standing and shouting his name. Listen to this crowd. Alex Ovechkin saluting the faithful here that came to cheer for the Blackhawks. What a classy job from the fans of the Chicago Blackhawks.”

Thank you for lending your voice to an unbelievable moment, John!

Full Coverage of Alex Ovechkin’s 800th Goal

Headline photo via @thedibbs2/Twitter

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