WASHINGTON – Alex Ovechkin has ended his brief drought. The countdown to another milestone in his career has begun again. Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season on Friday night, leaving him just two goals shy of reaching 900 in his career and helping the Washington Capitals achieve a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild. Ovechkin had gone scoreless in the first four games of the season, a longer stretch than any he experienced last season, when he scored 44 goals and broke Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record with his 895th goal. Now, the count has risen to 898, marked on a counter on a corner of the ice in Washington.
With the Capitals up 2-1 in the third period, Dylan Strome won a face-off for Ovechkin, who shot the puck towards the net from the left post.The opportunities were there. Sometimes you just have to be patient.
Alex Ovechkin
The Capitals lost their first game, but have won four in a row since then, and have only allowed three goals in 5-on-5 situations all season. On Friday, they outshot Minnesota 45-14 in a dominant performance. The shot ratio 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 often, and when it works, it looks great. It doesn’t always work. It was one of those situations where I was just in the right place.
Dylan Strome
Everything we did in the third period was exactly how we want to play. The structure, the guys made good decisions, rotated the lines. It was probably our most impressive period given the situation.
Spencer Carbery
