Hockey
Ovechkin repeated the crazy NHL record! Gretzky is only 22 goals away
The captain of the capital’s club is in great shape!
Alexander Ovechkin scored in the fourth game in a row! Now, before entering the “1000 club” (taking into account the playoffs and the regular season), he only needs to make six accurate shots! Ovechkin extended his scoring streak in the match against Nashville, thanks to which he repeated one of the league records.
But it was not possible to help Washington win…
Washington needs wins
Washington cannot boast of stable results: over the previous 10 matches, the capital club suffered six defeats. At the same time, on December 5, the Capitals’ successful streak, which consisted of six meetings, ended, and since then Spencer Carbury’s team has not been able to get two victories in a row. It is not possible to gain momentum, including due to problems with the composition.
Almost the entire season, one of the team’s best center forwards, Pierre-Luc Dubois, has been on the injured list, and a replacement has not yet been found. In addition, Belarusian forward Alexei Protas recently missed three matches due to injury, and Tom Wilson has still not recovered and cannot yet help his teammates.
Washington is in the playoff zone of the East, but its position has been greatly weakened. Given the high competition in the conference, the Capitals will leave the top eight in the very near future, if, of course, they continue in the same spirit. So, after a confident victory over Chicago in the last meeting, the players of the capital club were clearly determined to beat Nashville away in order to begin their first successful streak in a month.
Ovechkin’s streak continues
The Predators also continue to fight for a playoff spot. But the “predators” failed to start the regular season, but then gradually picked up speed. And over the last 22 matches, Andrew Brunette’s team won 14 victories. So the guests could not hope for an easy walk. But the Capitals could count on captain Alexander Ovechkin, who got into fiery form.
The Russian had a three-game scoring streak before the opening face-off, during which he scored four goals. Nashville’s defense was unable to stop Ovechkin, who continued to improve his sniper statistics. Already in the sixth minute, John Carlson delivered the puck to the left throw-in circle, and Alexander shot into the near corner of the goal with one touch and converted the majority – 1:0.
The leader of the capital’s club reaches the 20-goal mark for the 21st season in a row! In the entire history of the league, only Gordie Howe has more such “regular” goals – 22. In addition, Ovechkin became only the third player in the entire history of the NHL aged 40+ years who managed to score 20 goals in 46 games of the season or less.
Before him, Howe and Johnny Busiek tried. As for chasing Wayne Gretzky’s record of 1,016 goals in the regular season and playoffs, Alexander has 22 more shots left to catch the Canadian.
In the middle of the game, Nashville responded, also converting the majority thanks to the efforts of Steven Stamkos. But the second period turned out to be “dry”, and only after the second break the teams continued to please the fans with goals. At the same time, the Predators had a successful period: they hit Charlie Lindgren’s goal twice, spending a little more than two minutes on it. Cole Smith and Roman Yosi scored.
57 seconds before the siren, the guests reduced the gap to a minimum. During the extra play, Ovechkin assisted Ethan Frank, who converted the majority. Washington ran out of time for more. As a result, Nashville won – 3:2.
Source: Sportbox
I’m a sports enthusiast and journalist who has worked in the news industry for over 8 years. I currently work as an author at Sportish and my work focuses mainly on sports news.