The Washington Capitals celebrate a goal as the Utah Hockey Club’s defenseman Ian Cole (28) can only skate by in the second period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Mon Nov 18, 2024 (AP News photo)
By Tom Walker
Alex Ovechkin scored two goals in season quest to surpass Wayne Gretzky for most all-time NHL goals.
SALT LAKE CITY–Wayne Gretzky was just 10-years-old when a reporter watching him play youth hockey dubbed him The Great One, a prophetic nickname which he lived up to over the course of an illustrious 20-season NHL career during which he racked up 894 goals and 1,963 assists for a total of 2,857 points.
To put that into perspective, Jaromír Jágr is second on the all-time points list with 1,921. For all intents and purposes, Gretzky’s total points record is untouchable. There was a time that it was assumed that his goals record was also beyond reach.
Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is challenging that notion as he continues his pursuit of becoming the NHL’s new goal scoring king. On Monday night in Salt Lake City, Ovechkin notched his 867th and 868th career goals against Utah Hockey Club to bring him to within just 26 of tying Gretzky’s mark, something the 39-year-old winger could potentially achieve this season as the Caps defeated the UHC 6-2 at the Delta Center.
Utah started the game off on the right foot as forward Jack McBain netted his 5th goal of the season just over three minutes into the game, assisted by Kevin Stenlund and Ian Cole. Cole’s assist gave him 200 career NHL points.
That lead would be very short-lived when Capitals center Dylan Strome scored an unassisted goal at 7:46, followed with another just ten seconds later by his teammate Nic Dowd, giving Washington a 2-1 lead.
At 11:05 of the opening frame, Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin scored his 14th goal of the season to put Washington ahead by 3-1.
Early in the 2nd period, Utah’s Jack McBain was called for tripping against Andrew Mangiapane. Just four seconds later on the power play, Ovechkin scored his second of the game, his league-leading 15th of the season, and 868th of his career triggering applause not just from Capitals fans, but clearly a fair number of Utah fans witnessing history in the making as Washington increased its lead to 4-1.
The goal sent starting netminder Connor Ingram to the bench, relieved by Karel Vejmelka. Utah center Nick Bjugstad cut the deficit in half with his 3rd goal of the season at 11:44, assisted by Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller, but that turned out to be the end of Utah’s offensive production for the evening.
Washington received a scare at 5:30 of the third period when Alex Ovechkin collided with Jack McBain and was helped to the bench. He would not return to the ice for a shot at his second hat trick in as many games.
The Capitals put the game away for good by the midway point of the final frame with goals by Brandon Duhaime and Aliaksei Protas for a final score of 6-2.
After the game, Washington goaltender Charlie Lindgren spoke about Ovechkin whose goals against Connor Ingram tied Jaromír Jágr’s NHL record of 178 different goalies he has scored upon. “I don’t even know if there’s words to describe it.
I mean, honestly, it’s beyond impressive what he does. When it rains, it pours for him. I mean, it truly does. And you know, he finds ways to get to scoring areas and when he does and the puck is on his stick, he usually doesn’t miss. He’s our leader. It’s tough to see him go down. I don’t know what the extent is there, but even last night in Vegas, he scored three goals. He made a big pass break up there in the second period, had a big block. He’s a guy that’s doing it all right now and not just scoring. He’s a captain for a reason.” Capitals Head Coach Spencer Carbery, speaking of Ovechkin’s condition, said “He’s being evaluated as we speak, and we’ll know more tomorrow.”
Utah Hockey Club Head Coach André Tourigny commented on what made the difference in the loss. “[Washington] was really opportunistic early in the game. We had chances, we hit the post five times on our power play. We had looks, but we could not score the big goal. And then on the other side, they had the killer instinct and they pulled us away when they had the opportunity.” With regard to offensive production, “We’re not getting enough from anybody. We’re getting possession, shots, things like that, but we don’t finish. We missed the net on a lot of great opportunities. What I like about our game in the last week or so, is that we’re generating. We’re back to skating well and generating offense, but we need to finish. We need to make the last play, that play will make the difference. We can possess the puck as much as we want, but if we don’t make the last play that doesn’t count.”
Forward Lawson Crouse addressed the failure to capitalize on the power play. “We have to be way better. It’s easy to sit here and say, we hit cross bars, but that’s no excuse. We have got to find a way to put the puck in the back of the net. We had seven chances tonight, and we were 0-7, that’s not good enough…Maybe you tie the game up and it’s a different story. We’ve talked about a lot, we’re talking about it consistently, in the room in intermission, seeing what we can do. It’s hard to pick one thing, but we have got to be much better.”
Utah will try to turn things around on a four-game road trip beginning Thursday in Boston and then continuing to Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Montreal before returning home to face the Edmonton Oilers the day after Thanksgiving on November 29.
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