Ovechkin Passes Jagr in Caps Win

Every time Alex Ovechkin touched the puck on Tuesday night, the buzz and the anticipation were palpable. That's always the case - particularly at Capital One Arena - but everyone in the building was on high alert in Tuesday's game with the Islanders because the Caps captain entered the game with 766 career NHL goals, tied with Jaromir Jagr for third place on the League's all-time goals ledger.

Every time The Great Eight teed up a shot, that anticipation ratcheted up just a little higher, and with every miss and every save, there was a collective groan. When it finally happened, it was sudden, and it was quick. It was somehow surprising, even with all the anticipation.
With exactly five minutes left in the third period and the score tied at 2-2, the Islanders were guilty of icing the puck. The face-off came on the right dot in New York ice, just to the left of Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov, a former Capital and former Ovechkin teammate, the player Washington chose with its second first-round pick in the 2006 Draft, some 19 slots after taking Nicklas Backstrom fourth overall.
Ovechkin and linemates Evgeny Kuznetsov and Conor Sheary were on the ice for the icing, and Caps coach Peter Laviolette elected to keep that unit out for the offensive-zone draw, and why not? They'd been buzzing for much of the night, and the Caps were looking to nudge back into the lead, minutes after Axel Jonsson-Fjallby's first career NHL goal evened the game at 2-2.
Kuznetsov bent to take the draw against New York's J-G Pageau, with Sheary to his immediate left and Ovechkin a few feet behind and between both. The puck dropped, and Kuznetsov won it cleanly. Ovechkin hardly had to move; his feet barely did. He reached out for the puck, put it on his forehand and fired, and it beat Varlamov cleanly, high to the glove side.
Only two seconds elapsed.
Then the feet started moving. Ovechkin began doing a bit of a jig, raising his arms triumphantly while gliding backwards toward center ice. John Carlson and Martin Fehervary were the first ones to greet and embrace him; Kuznetsov diligently went after the puck and retrieved it. As the strains of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" - Ovechkin's "goal song" emanated from the public address system, the fans erupted in appreciation for what they witnessed, not just on this night, but on the many that preceded it over the last 17 seasons. His teammates hopped over the boards to join him in celebration, and the Caps had a 3-2 lead with 4:58 left.

"I just close my eyes and shoot," jokes Ovechkin. "I had pretty good chances in the previous games, and finally Kuzy wins a good face-off and put it right on my stick. And I scored on my very good friend Varly, so that's nice, too."
That's how Ovechkin's 767th NHL goal went down, and it pushed almost everything that happened before and after it in this game into the background, even the fact that Washington went on to win 4-3 in a shootout. Ovechkin was now ahead of Jagr, he was all alone as the leading European-born goal scorer of all time. And he was now looking up only at a short list of the two best that ever came before him: Wayne Gretzky (894) and Gordie Howe (801).
But there was more hockey to play, an outcome and a result hanging in the balance, and there were events from the first 55 minutes as well.
Back home for the first time in 10 days, the Caps drew first blood in the first frame. Conor Sheary got in on the forecheck and took possession of the puck, issuing a drop feed for Kuznetsov from down low in New York territory. Kuznetsov curled off to the half wall and surveyed briefly before hitting Anthony Mantha as he went to the net. Mantha redirected the feed past Islanders netminder Semyon Varlamov for a 1-0 Washington lead at 12:21 of the first.
Early in the first, Varlamov made successive strong stops to thwart Daniel Sprong and Connor McMichael on the same sequence. In the final seconds of the opening period, Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek made his best stop of the frame, denying Anthony Beauvillier from in tight following a Caps turnover.
Just before the five-minute mark of the second, the Islanders pulled even. Dmitry Orlov blocked Zdeno Chara's shot, but the rebound caromed to Brock Nelson, who fired it home from the right circle, tying the game at 1-1 at 4:55. The Caps issued a coach's challenge, alleging that Anders Lee had interfered with Vanecek. The powers that be didn't see it that way, and the Caps were penalized for delay of game, which turned out to be the only power play of the game for either side.
Washington killed it off without incident, and late in the frame, it looked as though the Caps had retaken the lead on a Justin Schultz shot from the bottom of the left circle. But New York issued a successful coach's challenge to take the goal off the board. Washington was offside on the play.
Earlier in the second, Vanecek made a brilliant stop on Kyle Palmieri's rush attempt, denying him at the right post. But with 2:58 left in the middle frame, Josh Bailey gave Palmieri another shot at the same play, and this time the veteran scored to give New York its first lead of the night, 2-1.
Tuesday's tilt with the Islanders marked the fourth straight game in which Washington trailed at some point in the third, and the fourth straight game in which it found a way to pull at least a point. Just after the midpoint of the third, the Caps got even when Orlov made a heady play to set up Jonsson-Fjallby's maiden marker in the NHL.
In his own end of the ice, Orlov made a good read to pick off an errant New York pass, and despite some fatigue, he wisely carried out of the zone with Jonsson-Fjallby on his left. Isles defenseman Adam Pelech had been up in the play, and he lost his footing. Lee was filling in at the point, but Orlov easily shook him off to create a 2-on-1 as he reached the New York line. From there, he squared and fed Jonsson-Fjallby, who lifted the puck over a sliding Varlamov for a beauty of a first goal, tying the game at 10:13.

"It felt good," says Jonsson-Fjallby. "It felt like it took me long enough. But it was a great feeling."
"I think about the [line] change," says Orlov. "I was so tired. But I got the puck, I beat one guy in our zone, and I didn't want to just dump it. I tried to see what's going on, tried to skate. And I beat another guy, and we got a 2-on-1. Axel made a great finish, and it was a huge goal for us."
In a story book finish, Ovechkin's milestone marker would have been the game winner. But the Isles tied it again with 1:59 remaining when Lee scored on a rebound from the slot, with Varlamov pulled for an extra attacker.
Lee's goal forced overtime, and the Caps dominated in the extra session but couldn't find the winner. A shootout was necessary, and both goalies were splendid in the skills competition. On the Great Eight's night, it took eight rounds, but Mantha got it done for Washington, finishing what he started hours earlier on this memorable night at the big barn on F St.
The win was a big one for Washington; the Caps are now 5-0-1 in their last six games, and they're in the midst of their best run of hockey in four months, since mid-November. But years from now, few will remember the outcome of the contest.
Ovechkin is now third on the NHL's all-time goals ledger, and he is atop the list of European-born players on that same list. That's what the people came to see on this late winter's night in the District, and they were not disappointed. Ovechkin scored his first NHL goal right here some sixteen and a half years ago, and this was one of the biggest ones he has scored since.
"Yeah it is," answers Ovechkin, asked whether it was crazy that he now trails only Gretzky and Howe. "But I'm still playing. You never know what's going to happen in the future. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow in hockey. I did it, and we did it as a team. And now it's just a period of time. If I can do it, I will."