Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the first period of Tuesday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks to lead him in all-time road goals .
With the 402e and 403e career goals on opposing NHL rinks, Ovechkin edged the legendary Wayne Gretzky.
These were the 12e and 13e goals of the Great 8 this season, he who is aiming to dislodge Gretzky for the slew of goals. He outsmarted Spencer Martin twice.
With those other two goals, the 37-year-old Ovi moved 101 closer to the tall No. 99’s 894 goals. He is just eight goals short of second-placed Gordie Howe.
The Caps captain is currently looking for his tenth season of 50 or more goals in the Bettman circuit, in his 18th year.
Washington eventually won the duel by a score of 5-1 to sweep the series of two meetings between the two clubs this season.
Anthony Mantha, John Carlson and Martin Fehervary – the latter in an empty net – were the other scorers for the Caps, which was only the third victory of the calendar on the road (3-7-2).
Darcy Kuemper flinched only once on 32 shots. Nils Hoglander managed to beat him at 1:55 of the first period, on a play prepared by JT Miller.
Freshly returned from a four-game trip abroad, Bruce Boudreau’s squad will play four of their next five games in front of their fans.
The Canes winners in prol. and Sullivan furious
Brett Pesce scored on a 2-0 run in overtime as the Carolina Hurricanes snatched a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
The Canes’ victory (12-6-5) did not please Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan. Far from there.
Furious that the officials did not call a penalty for a gesture to the place of Bryan Rust near the bench of his club, Sullivan took long minutes to garland the referees before leaving for the locker room.
After Seth Jarvis’ gesture at the expense of Rust, Andrei Svechnikov grabbed the puck, coming alone with Pesce from the Pittsburgh offensive blue line (11-8-4).
Tristan Jarry couldn’t help it in front of a nice exchange between the two skaters from Carolina.
“It was a dangerous check, so of course I disagreed with (their) decision,” Sullivan said after the game.
Rookie goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov, who was getting his fourth start in the Hurricanes’ last five games, made 30 saves. Jarry meanwhile faced 39 shots.
The visitors’ other two goals were scored by Martin Necas and Svechnikov, both in the middle period.
Jake Guentzel had allowed the Penguins to send the game to extra time when he deflected a Jeff Petry shot past Kochetkov at 7:03 of the third period.
Guenztel also assisted in Sidney Crosby’s 12th goal of the campaign.
Top scorer of his team, the No. 87 has 31 points in his record in 23 games.
The Avalanche manhandled in Winnipeg
Blake Wheeler scored a hat trick, Connor Hellebuyck made 40 saves, and the Winnipeg Jets outscored the Colorado Avalanche 5-0.
Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and company had a field day at the expense of the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Scheifele scored a goal and added two assists, while veteran Wheeler finished with four points.
Wheeler now has four hat-tricks since joining the NHL in the 2008-09 season.
It was Hellebuyck’s third shutout this season and his 11e victoire.
For his entire career, the Jets’ star goaltender (14-6-1) now has 31 shutouts.
On the other side of the rink, Alexandar Georgiev had a hard night’s work, allowing five goals on 24 shots.
The Avalanche (12-7-1) had won four of their previous five games. Jared Bednar’s troops were cleared for the second time this season.
Colorado was embarking on a four-game road trip overseas.
The Flyers’ ordeal is over
Ten losses later, the Philadelphia Flyers have finally found their way to victory. John Tortorella’s men took the measure of the New York Islanders to end their sad streak that began on November 10.
Kevin Hayes and Lukas Sedlak each contributed with two points.
All did not seem to be going well for the Flyers, however, who conceded the first goal of the game only 3:12 into the game. Noah Dobson fired a good slap shot on a power play to open the scoring with his seventh goal of the campaign.
Philadelphia, however, provided the answer 1:12 later when Travis Sanheim hit the target short of a man to bring everyone back to square one.
Then halfway through the period, Kevin Hayes came back for the Flyers with a sharp shot from the face-off to give the Flyers control. Hayes completed his double in an empty net late in the game to secure the victory for Philadelphia.
The win went to Carter Hart, who saved 23 pucks. At the other end of the rink, Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves.
Josi saves the day for the Preds
Roman Josi found the back of the net at 3:50 of overtime to give the Nashville Predators a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Goaltender Juuse Saros helped the Predators win by blocking 34 pucks.
Colton Sissons, midway through the second period, scored the other goal for the Predators, who have won two of their last three games. Matt Duchene participated in both of his goals.
During overtime, Mikael Granlund jumped on a loose puck in the Ducks’ area and spotted Duchene on the right flank. Duchene made a pass to his left to Josi who managed to find the back of the net despite goalkeeper John Gibson’s dive.
Troy Terry, in the third period, had the Ducks’ lone goal and Gibson stopped 39 shots.
The Ducks suffered a third straight loss and have now lost six of their last seven meetings.
The Predators were playing their first game since last Monday after a burst water main flooded Bridgestone Arena on Friday.
The incident led to the postponement of the game scheduled for that afternoon against the Colorado Avalanche, and the next day against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
