In the last match, Washington beat Los Angeles away (3:1), winning their fifth victory in a row. Thanks to a successful period, the Capitals rose to third place in the East. Tampa and Carolina, who are higher, have the same number of points. If the capital club beats San Jose on the road, it can take sole first place in the conference.

Given Washington’s form and the Sharks’ inconsistent performance of late, Spencer Carbury’s side look like favorites heading into the meeting. But the Capitals players shouldn’t relax. There was already an episode when Alexander Ovechkin believed in victory over the “sharks” too early, which ultimately led to a painful defeat.

Ovechkin even had to apologize!

Ovechkin’s controversial match

In the 2018/19 season, the capital club played as the reigning champion and also claimed first place not only in the division, but also in the entire conference. But from time to time Washington experienced storms, which led to a long series of defeats. So, before the home match with San Jose, which took place on January 22, the Capitals lost five games in a row.

It’s easy to imagine the mood of the hockey players, who clearly missed victories. Ovechkin was also extremely motivated, having distinguished himself already in the middle of the first period. With the score 1:0 in favor of the guests, the Russian converted the majority: Alexander was the first to react to the rebound from the goalkeeper and played on the finish.

A few shifts later, Andre Burakovsky supported the captain and put the hosts ahead for the first time in the match. Before the fans in the stands of Capital One Arena had time to rejoice, after a shot from Tomas Hertl, the Washington goalkeeper again had to get the puck out of the goal. However, even before the break, the defending champions took the lead thanks to Ovechkin, who provided an assist to TJ Oshie.

It seemed that after the stormy opening period of the game the teams would calm down a little, but in the second period the opponents staged a real hockey festival. At the same time, the hosts’ Russian forward was in the spotlight. First, in the 26th minute, he scored the second goal: with a powerful wrist shot from the top of the left throw-in circle, Ovechkin hit the far corner of Martin Jones’ goal.

Alexander Ovechkin / Photo: © Patrick Smith / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

And in the third period, with the score 5:4 in favor of the Capitals, the Russian scored a hat-trick. This time the striker completed Jakub Vrana’s cross pass with one touch. The guests were not upset and even managed to reduce the gap to a minimum in the 51st minute. The Sharks spent the remainder of the period unsuccessfully trying to salvage the game until the coaching staff replaced Jones with a sixth skater late in the period.

At this moment, Ovechkin had a great opportunity to put an end to it: he shot at an empty goal, but hit defender Brent Burns, who immediately launched a counterattack, which ended with a goal from Evander Kane a second before the siren – 6:6.

If the Russian forward had held the puck or passed the ball, the hosts would have taken 2 points. But the Washington players relaxed too early, which led to overtime, where the guests won: Hertl scored the winning goal, scoring a hat-trick – 7:6.

After the match, Alexander once again proved that for him the team’s result is more important than personal statistics. He told reporters that he was dissatisfied with the game, apologized and took the blame for the defeat on himself, although he scored 4 (3+1) points.

— It was my mistake at the end of the game. I acted in haste and it didn’t work out. It was necessary to act better in this situation,” Ovechkin noted.

This season, Washington and San Jose will meet for the first time. And this time, Capitals fans would like to see not only Alexander’s productive performance, but also the sixth victory in a row from the capital club.