Jackets' Comeback Jolts Caps, 7-6
Ovechkin nets 40th of season to break Gretzky mark, but Caps can't close against Columbus
The sudden death loss spoiled a strong start for the Caps, and it came on a night when the organization feted team captain Alex Ovechkin for becoming just the third player in NHL history to record 800 career goals, and for passing the legendary Gordie Howe (801) some 10 days later, moving into second place on the NHL's all-time list behind only Wayne Gretzky (894).
Ovechkin and his family were on the ice along with Caps' majority owner Ted Leonsis and team president Dick Patrick, and the captain received a series of impressive gifts from the organization, from his teammates, from the NHLPA and from the League to commemorate the achievements. Howe's son Mark was on hand for the celebration as well, as was NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.
"It's a beyond special night, to start there," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. "It's something that you'll remember forever. It would have been nice to get the win, but I'm extremely happy for [Ovechkin] to see his family. He is an amazing man and an amazing hockey player. It's too bad we couldn't get the two points, but I'll remember this night for him and for his family for the rest of my life."
On his special night, Ovechkin scored the game's first goal in somewhat unconventional fashion, breaking a longstanding Gretzky record in the process.
Following the stirring pregame ceremony, the Caps came out of the gates with probably their best and fastest start of calendar 2023; it was the first time they took a multi-goal lead to the room after 20 minutes of play since New Year's Eve. Dylan Strome had a breakaway early in the game, and on his next shift, he appeared to have scored the game's first goal on a tic-tac-toe play off the rush at 5:12. Although the goal was initially credited to Strome, Ovechkin ended up banking it in off a Columbus defender during the "tac" portion of the equation.
Ovechkin's 40th goal of the season lifted the Caps to a 1-0 lead, and broke Wayne Gretzky's record (12) for most seasons with 40 or more goals in an NHL career. Ovechkin now has 13 such seasons; no other player in the League has had more than six 40-goal seasons over that same span.
"It's a pretty cool moment," says Ovechkin of breaking the record. "I always say, it doesn't matter what the record is, it's the record."
Coming out of the first television timeout of the first frame, the Caps doubled their lead to 2-0 at 8:10 when T.J. Oshie tipped a Martin Fehervary point drive past Columbus netminder Daniil Tarasov.
Later in the first, Conor Sheary shook off a dry spell with his 13th goal of the season at the 16-minute mark. Rasmus Sandin fought off a check to push the puck to space in the middle of the ice, and Sheary collected it and deposited it in the net to make it 3-0.
Forty-five seconds later, the Jackets got on the board when Eric Robinson struck from the top of the paint, converting a Mathieu Olivier feed at 16:45.
In the second, the Jackets cut the lead to one when Adam Boqvist slipped a shot past Charlie Lindgren at 6:57, just seven seconds after the Caps' goaltender made nice save on Boqvist from the other side of the ice.
Shortly after the midpoint of the middle period, Sonny Milano restored the two-goal cushion, finishing a bit of a give-and-go down low with Nicklas Backstrom to make it a 4-2 game at 10:36. The former Blue Jackets first-rounder bit the hand that once fed him, scoring against his former team for the first time.
With the Jackets on the power play in the back half of the frame, the visitors again pulled to within a goal of Washington on Roslovic's first goal of the game, a shot from the slot at 15:01.
It looked as though the Caps would take that slim lead to the room after the second, but Nic Dowd and Nick Jensen had other ideas. Dowd carried from deep in Washington ice all the way into the Columbus end, curling behind the Columbus cage and surveying from the opposite half wall. Spotting Jensen lurking in the high slot, Dowd fed him perfectly, and Jensen fired a wrister to the shelf to give Washington a 5-3 lead with 7.1 seconds left in the period.
Despite giving up that late goal in the second, the Jackets didn't go away. Columbus struck for a pair of quick goals in the front half of the third to draw even for the first time on the evening. Boqvist scored his second of the game from the left circle at 6:37, and just under two minutes later Emil Bemstrom made it 5-5, scoring from virtually the same spot off one-timer with a nifty tee-up from Patrik Laine.
Jensen put on a burst of speed late in the third, scooting down the left side and putting a well-placed backhander behind Tarasov on the short side to give the Caps the lead once again at 15:24, but Washington wasn't able to lock it down.
Columbus captain Boone Jenner tied the game with 46.9 seconds left and with Tarasov on the bench for an extra attacker.
The Caps had the better of looks and possession in the extra session, but both Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ovechkin missed wide on Washington's best looks.
When Oshie lost his footing and the puck in Columbus ice, Johnny Gaudreau took off on a 2-on-1 with Roslovic on his left, feeding the latter perfectly for the one-timer from the left circle that gave Columbus its comeback victory, preventing the Caps from a sweep of the season's series between the two Metro Division rivals.
"He was out there for a while," says Roslovic of Gaudreau's monster shift of 2:43 in length, the entire overtime to that point. "When you get a 2-on-1 though, you get a burst of energy. It was nice to get the puck from him and put it in."
Less than a week ago, the Caps won a 5-4 shootout decision here over Buffalo, winning a game in which they never led and overcoming multiple multi-goal deficits in doing so. Tonight, the skate was on the other foot as the Jackets achieved the same feat, albeit by a different score and in overtime.
"Anytime you play a team and you take a 3-0 lead, you're going to expect a push back," says Jensen. "And it's how you respond to that. We were expecting it, probably, and they took it to us. I think we took over the second half of the second period, but we've got to match the intensity knowing that they're going to push back in the second, and keep working and playing [defense] as hard as we can.
"We let them sneak back in a few times tonight. It's a hard game, it's hard to play defense. I've watched games from above and it's easy to see everything going on. But when you're in the [defensive] zone, you're tired, and everyone's flying all over the place, it's hard. We've got to keep working at it."
