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 went scoreless in the first four games of the season, a longer period than any other time 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,” Ovechkin said. “Sometimes you just have to be patient.” With the Capitals up 2-1 in the third period, Dylan Strome won a face-off for Ovechkin, who shot the puck past the left post.
The Capitals lost their opening game, but have won four in a row since then, and have only allowed three 5-on-5 goals all season. On Friday, they outshot Minnesota 45-14 in a dominant performance. The shot count was 24-7 after two periods, but Washington led only 2-1 before Ovechkin gave the Capitals their first multiple-goal lead of the night.“We obviously try that play quite a bit, and when it works, it looks great,” said Strome, who scored two goals. “It doesn’t always work. It was one of those situations where I was just in the right place.”
Dylan Strome
“Everything we were doing in the third period was exactly in line with how we want to play,” said coach Spencer Carbery. “The structure, the players were making good decisions, rotating the lines. It was probably our most impressive period given the situation.”
Spencer Carbery
