A long time ago in a playoff series far, far away… the NHL’s two biggest superstars went head to head in one of the greatest postseason offensive showings in the league’s history.
The May 4th game back in 2009 saw the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins meet in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, where Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby each recorded a hat trick. The Caps went on to win the game 4-3 thanks to Dave Steckel being the only other player besides Ovechkin and Crosby to find the back of the net.
“It’s good for the fans to see great players play against each other and two great teams play against each other,” a 23-year-old Ovechkin said then according to the NHL. “It’s an interesting time and an interesting game. It’s unbelievable when you play against great players and you win a game like this.”
The Capitals entered the contest with a 1-0 series lead after taking Game 1 by a score of 3-2, in which Ovechkin tallied his fourth goal of the postseason.
However, Pittsburgh eventually advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals after erasing a 2-0 series deficit and winning Game 7. The Penguins would later lift the Stanley Cup that summer.
Now, 16 years later, Ovechkin is a Stanley Cup champion in his own right and also the greatest goal scorer in NHL history. He passed Wayne Gretzky for most goals all-time on April 6, finishing the 2024-25 season with 897 career tallies.
Crosby, on the other hand, has lifted the Stanley Cup twice more since 2009 and sits ninth on the NHL’s all-time points list (1,687). He broke a Gretzky record of his own this year, clinching a 20th season averaging at least a point per game, one better than Gretzky.
The 37-year-old center participated in another dueling hat-trick game just this season. He and Dallas Stars right winger Evgenii Dadonov, also Russian, scored three goals each on April 5, exactly 24 hours after Ovechkin tied Gretzky’s all-time goals record.
Ovechkin and Crosby, two future Hockey Hall of Famers, bonded by their superstar status in the NHL since their joint rookie seasons, played for the 73rd time against each other last April.
