WASHINGTON – Alex Ovechkin has ended his brief drought. The countdown to another milestone in his career can begin again. Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season on Friday night, leaving him two goals shy of 900 in his career and helping the Washington Capitals to a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild. Ovechkin was scoreless in the first four games of the season, a longer period than he experienced at any point last season, when he scored 44 goals and broke Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record with goal number 895. That number is now 898, and it’s displayed on a counter above a corner of the ice in Washington. “The opportunities were there. Sometimes you just have to be patient,” Ovechkin said. With the Capitals up 2-1 in the third period, Dylan Strome won a face-off against Ovechkin, who shot the puck wide of the left post.
The Capitals lost their first game, but have won four in a row since then, and have only allowed three goals at 5-on-5 all season. On Friday, they outshot Minnesota 45-14 in a dominant performance. The shot count was 24-7 after two periods, but Washington only led 2-1 before Ovechkin gave the Capitals their first multiple-goal lead of the night.“Obviously, we try that play quite a bit, and when it works, it looks great. It doesn’t always work. It was one of those where it just fell right into the right spot,” Strome said.
Dylan Strome
“Everything we were doing in the third period was exactly in line with how we want to play. The structure, the guys were making good decisions, rotating the lines. It was probably our most impressive period given the situation,” said coach Spencer Carbery.
Spencer Carbery
