Alex Ovechkin scored his milestone 900th career goal on Wednesday night in the Washington Capitals’ home matchup with the St. Louis Blues.
Ovechkin increased his league-record total, becoming the first player to 900 goals by corralling a missed shot from teammate Jakob Chychrun and spinning to backhand the puck past Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington, who lunged but failed to glove it.
Ovechkin initiated the sequence by stealing Binnington’s attempted pass and feeding the puck to Chychrun at the point.
The goal at 2:39 of the second period was Washington’s second of the game. Capitals players streamed off the home bench to mob Ovechkin, their 40-year-old captain and a nine-time 50-goal scorer.
The scene was reminiscent of April 6 when Ovechkin blasted his 895th career goal past New York Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin to surpass Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 goals towards the end of a marvelous regular season for him and the Capitals, who topped the Eastern Conference standings.
Ovechkin had scored twice this season and Washington owned a 6-5-1 record (13 points) entering Wednesday’s matchup with St. Louis.
