Alex Ovechkin’s wrist shot appears to already be in midseason form.
The Great Eight laced up his skates for some summer game action as he led a team of Russian NHL stars against some of the KHL’s top players at CSKA Arena in Moscow on Saturday. The friendly game, labeled “Match of the Year,” was primarily organized by New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin and new Utah HC defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.
Ovechkin opened the matchup’s scoring just 23 seconds into the first period.
Panarin tallied the primary assist on the goal. Ovechkin went top-shelf past the KHL team’s netminder.
He celebrated with former Capitals teammate Dmitry Orlov before heading back to the bench where he pumped up the crowd even further.
The Capitals’ captain, donning his Caps-branded helmet and team-color gloves, skated on a line with Panarin and Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin.
Ovechkin and Malkin, who once had a very real feud, jokingly got into a spat during the first intermission.
“He doesn’t want to play today,” Malkin said as transcribed by sports.ru and translated via Google Translate. “Look at his movements. There is no movement. Of course, he has a shot. But after the first shift, that’s it, you can’t see him. Where’s the number eight on the ice?”
“The third period will show everything,” Ovechkin responded.
The final score of the All-Star-laden matchup was fittingly 8-8 and Ovechkin was named the best player of the game.
“The last time we played in Moscow was at the World Championship,” Ovechkin told Match TV postgame. “Of course, the fans missed us, and we missed them. A very joyful event.”
Other NHL goal scorers included Panarin, Malkin, Andrei Svechnikov, Pavel Buchnevich, Vasily Podkolzin, and Dmitry Voronkov. Nikolay Goldobin and Pavel Poryadin led the KHL stars.
Per HockeyNewsHub, the sold-out event raised over 10 million rubles ($144k) for charity.
“I knew that Artemi Panarin was making a cool match, and I wanted to unite, somehow help and do something more large-scale,” Sergachev told sports.ru’s Daria Romanova. “I called Artemi, he told me to call Ovechkin, and everything worked out. The main thing is that all the guys came, supported, and agreed. Without the guys, this event would not have happened.”
Ovechkin had both his mother Tatyana and wife Nastya in attendance to watch what was likely his first time back on the ice since he played in a Dynamo Moscow alumni game in late May. The Ovechkin family had been on vacation in Turkey before heading back to Russia earlier in July.
