Russian netminder Ilya Sorokin accomplished an incredible feat in the New York Islanders’ 2-1 shootout victory over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night. Sorokin didn’t surrender a goal to Alex Ovechkin (though Ovi did hit the crossbar), marking the second game of his career where he’s blanked the Capitals captain.
Throughout Ovechkin’s 18 seasons in the NHL, Ovi has scored on 169 different goaltenders — the third most of all time. That list includes names like Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hasek, Ed Belfour, Henrik Lundqvist, and Marc-Andre Fleury.
But I wondered who are the outliers like Sorokin. Who are the goaltenders who have solved Alex Ovechkin?
Solved, in this exercise, is a goaltender who has faced Alex Ovechkin in his career during the regular season or playoffs, stopped one of Ovi’s shots, and did not give up a goal.
The list, folks, is STAGGERINGLY small.
The stats are as of March 31, 2023, and were tabulated by Alexander O’Reilly.
These Are The 23 Goalies Who Have Played Against Alex Ovechkin Without Letting In A Goal
| Goalie Name | Games Played Against Ovi | Goals Allowed | Ovi SOG Faced |
| Michal Neuvirth | 9 | 0 | 25 |
| Mike Condon | 7 | 0 | 18 |
| Mathieu Garon | 7 | 0 | 16 |
| Manny Legace | 3 | 0 | 14 |
| Ilya Samsonov | 3 | 0 | 12 |
| Manny Fernandez | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Rob Zepp | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Vítek Vaněček | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| Jeff Zatkoff | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Calvin Pickard | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Garret Sparks | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Erik Ersberg | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Jocelyn Thibault | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Erik Kallgren | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Joel Hofer | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Kevin Lankinen | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Ilya Sorokin | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Jean-Francois Berube | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Akira Schmid | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Braden Holtby | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Collin Delia | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Curtis Joseph | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| David Aebischer | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Four of the 23 goaltenders (17.3 percent) who have “solved” Ovechkin are former Capitals. They learned the secrets of Ovi in practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex before leaving for greener pastures and putting on a clinic.
Michal Neuvirth leads the list stopping 23 consecutive shots against from Ovechkin during eight games. This includes Neuvirth’s incredible performance against the Capitals in the 2016 playoffs as a member of the Flyers.
In their first seasons away from the Capitals, the Leafs’ Ilya Samsonov (12) and the Devils’ Vitek Vanecek (9) have not given up a goal to their former captain.
Former Capital Braden Holtby, who did not play this season and may be nearing a retirement announcement, is the only Vezina Trophy winner on this list, stopping two shots from Ovechkin in an appearance with the Dallas Stars.
Mike Condon and Mathieu Garon are the only goaltenders who have never played for the Capitals and stopped Ovechkin in seven games.
It’s worth noting that five goaltenders — Magnus Hellberg, Chris Holt, Gilles Senn, Henrik Karlsson, and Kristers Gudlevskis — suited up in a game against Ovechkin but were not tested by an Ovi shot, just missing out on this exclusive list.
A few notes: We welcome these numbers to be peer-reviewed. The only thing that we believe could be off is if a penalty shot from the shootout was counted.
