While falling short of Wayne Gretzky in terms of goals, Alex Ovechkin achieved the incredible milestone of 1,500 points in the National Hockey League on Thursday night.
The Washington Capitals forward became the 16th player in league history to reach 1,500 points with an assist on his team’s fourth goal in the 5-4 shootout loss against the Dallas Stars.
Ovechkin handed the puck out of the zone to Anthony Mantha. The latter left for Dylan Strome who vibrated the strings with a good throw once in opposing territory to bring the score to 4-3 Caps. It was the 10th assist of the season for the Russian forward who is limited to five goals. He hasn’t found the back of the net in eight games.
Ovechkin is the player with the most goals on his record when recording his 1,500th point. Phil Esposito is second in NHL history with 681 goals when he reached this plateau. Ovechkin did it all in his 1,370th game on the Bettman circuit.
Gretzky’s record for goals is 894. Just ahead of Ovechkin in points is Sidney Crosby with 1,529.
Roope Hintz tied the game 4-4 with less than seven minutes remaining in the third period. Like Strome, it was his second goal of the game. The Stars were hoping to deprive the Caps of at least a point as Jamie Benn had a gaping cage in front of him, but Charlie Lindgren stretched the stick to make the save.
The Caps obtained a numerical advantage during overtime, but Scott Wedgewood stood up, notably in front of a powerful one-timer from Ovechkin.
The Stars goaltender was also the star during the shootout, remaining perfect in front of three Capitals players, including Ovechkin. Jason Robertson was the only one to hit the mark during the session.
Lindgren suffered the defeat while stopping 34 pucks. After being left out due to poor performances, Evgeny Kuznetsov found the back of the net upon his return to the lineup. Wedgewood faced 27 shots.
