Capitals Rally To Down Blackhawks, 5-3; Alex Ovechkin Scores Twice To Tie Wayne Gretzky With 894 Career Goals


Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals rallied to down the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-3, Thursday night at Capital One Arena in the District. Capitals Captain Alex Ovechkin scored twice to tie Wayne Gretzky with 894 career goals. The victory improves the Capitals’ record to 49-18-9 (107 points) on the season.

LINEUP

Charlie Lindgren (17-12-3, 2.66 GAA, .899 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Capitals. Spencer Knight (15-14-2, 2.62 GAA, .902 sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Blackhawks. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Aliaksei Protas — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Ryan Leonard
Andrew Mangiapane – Lars Eller — Taylor Raddysh
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Connor McMichael

Rasmus Sandin — John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary — Matt Roy

Charlie Lindgren
Hunter Shepard

Scratches: Alex Alexeyev, Ethen Frank, Dylan McIlrath, Anthony Beauvillier

Injured: Logan Thompson (upper-body), Sonny Milano (upper-body), Nicklas Backstrom (hip), T.J. Oshie (back).

1ST PERIOD

The Capitals opened the scoring on a close-range snipe by Alex Ovechkin (40) at 3:52 of the first frame. It was Ovechkin’s 893rd career goal, one goal shy of tying Wayne Gretzky on the all-time goals list. Dylan Strome (50) and John Carlson (43) had the helpers.

Ovechkin has recorded his NHL-record 14th career 40-goal season. He is the first player in NHL history with at least three 40-goal seasons at the age of 35 or older (also 2022-23: 42g; 2021-22: 50g).

Ovechkin, 39, has scored 40 goals in 60 games this season (0.67 G/GP) and 18 goals in his last 26 games. Ovechkin has scored at least one goal in an NHL-record 679 career games, which is 41 more than the next closest player (Wayne Gretzky: 638).

The Blackhawks tied the game later in frame with a tally from Tyler Bertuzzi (21) at 13:55. L. Slaggert (2) and F. Nazar (12) had the assists.

And that was it for the first frame. The Blackhawks led in five-on-five shot attempts, 19-16. The Capitals led in expected goals for, 1.14 to 0.99.

2ND PERIOD

The Blackhawks took their first lead of the night on a tally from Frank Nazar (8) 31 seconds into the middle frame. O. Moore (1) and P. Maroon (14) had the assists.

The Capitals answered with a tally from Martin Fehervary (5) at 7:09. Connor McMichael (30) and John Carlson (44) had the assists.

But the Blackhawks answered just 10 seconds later to regain the lead with a tally from Philipp Kurashev (7). L. Slaggert (3) and O. Moore (2) had the helpers.

The Blackhawks held the 3-2 lead into the second intermission. The Capitals led in five-on-five shot attempts, 23-13, and expected goals for, 1.02 to 0.76.

3RD PERIOD

The Capitals tied the game with a power play goal from Dylan Strome (25) at 3:46 of the final frame. The goal was unassisted.

Strome, who appeared in 225 games with Chicago from 2018-22, has tallied seven points (2g, 5a) in eight career games against the Blackhawks.

The Capitals regained the lead on a power play goal from Alex Ovechkin, his second tally of the night, to make it 4-3. John Carlson (45) and Andrew Mangiapane (13) had the helpers.

Ryan Leonard added an empty net goal to seal the victory.

About Jon Sorensen

Jon has been a Caps fan since day one, attending his first game at the Capital Centre in 1974. His interest in the Caps has grown over the decades and included time as a season ticket holder. He has been a journalist covering the team for 10+ years, primarily focusing on analysis, analytics and prospect development.





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