WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his 889th career goal and had to go right by Scott Arniel and the Winnipeg Jets to celebrate with his Washington Capitals teammates. He didn’t let the opportunity go to waste.
“He came by the bench and gave me the biggest smirk,” Arniel, who was an assistant with the Capitals from 2018-22, said with his own smile.
Ovechkin is now five goals away from tying and six from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record after scoring late Tuesday night to tie a game between the top two teams in the NHL. The goal forced overtime before the Jets won 3-2.
“I’m glad he got the goal,” Arniel said. “I’m glad he’s getting closer to whatever that number is. At the end of the day, that’s him. It doesn’t take much. The puck is on his stick, off his stick. I thought we did a really good job for most of the game of trying to limit him. He had a lot of chances, and he had a few on the power play, but I thought we did a really good job of staying over top of him. He doesn’t need much time or space.”
With three goals in his past five games, the 39-year-old is back in range to pass Gretzky’s mark of 894 that long seemed unapproachable this spring. Based on his career and season average, Ovechkin is on pace to get 895 in Washington’s penultimate game of the regular season April 15 at the New York Islanders.
“He’s a guy that when you’re on him, you’re not even really on him: You’ve got to be in his pocket or you’ve got to be basically touching him because his release is so lethal,” Winnipeg forward Mason Appleton said. “You can’t just be fronting him because he can get pucks through or around — every which way through the guy. He’s a heck of a goal-scorer, and you give him just a little time and space and he can kill you.”
Ovechkin’s record-extending 150th game-tying goal came with 4 minutes left after linemate Aliaksei Protas found him open in the left faceoff circle. He fired a perfect wrist shot past two-time Vezina Trophy winner and current favorite Connor Hellebuyck.
“Everyone do a great job and the puck came to (Protas) and he finds me,” Ovechkin said. “It was a pretty good play by everybody.”
Coach Spencer Carbery called it “a big play in a big moment to get that game tied.” It’s becoming his job to find the best situations to get Ovechkin in position to score.
“He obviously wants to be out there, and then I just manage it with certain matchups and certain situations,” Carbery said. “That’s something him and I have talked about and we sort of work through, given the situation and the circumstance of the game.”
Ovechkin has 36 goals this season and is on track to reach 40 for a 14th time, also the most in league history, despite missing 16 games because of a broken left fibula. The spotlight will continue to get brighter as he inches closer to Gretzky.
“It is what it is,” Ovechkin said. “It’s a fun time, obviously, but yeah you just have to enjoy it. It’s a special moment, obviously. Everybody’s watching. Everybody’s paying attention to that.”
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