Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals has broken the NHL goals record held by Wayne Gretzky by scoring the 895th of his career.
Ovechkin beat fellow Russian Ilya Sorokin on the power play Sunday at the New York Islanders to pass Gretzky and take sole possession of the record.
Ovechkin entered the season 42 short of breaking the regular-season record by “The Great One” that had long seemed unapproachable. The 39-year-old Russian is in his 20th NHL season and was on pace to get to 894 and beyond in February before breaking his left leg in a shin-on-shin collision in November. He missed 16 games but resumed his pursuit at Toronto in the Capitals' first game out of the Christmas break.
Alex Ovechkin’s most recent goal scored
With the Capitals down 2-0 and getting their first power play of the game, Ovechkin got a perfect pass from longtime teammate Tom Wilson and fired his signature one-timer past Sorokin and into the back of the net.
What record
s does Ovechkin already have?
Ovechkin already owned the NHL records for power-play goals and shots on goal.
No. 894 also gave him 136 game-winning goals, breaking a tie for the most with Jaromir Jagr. After adding Sorokin, Ovechkin has scored on 183 goaltenders, breaking Jagr's record by beating Leevi Merilainen of the Senators with No. 874. Ovechkin has 178 multi-goal games, second to Gretzky (189).
Ovechkin earlier this season became the 60th player to record 700 assists. He joined Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Jagr, Marcel Dionne and Phil Esposito as the only players with 700 goals and 700 assists.
Who are the NHL’s leading scorers?
Ovechkin, after climbing past Mike Gartner (708), Esposito (717), Dionne (731), Brett Hull (741) and Jagr (766), scored goal No. 802 on Dec. 23, 2022, to move into second behind Gretzky (894). He got his 895th in his 1,487th regular-season game, the same number Gretzky finished with.
Who previously held the career goals record?
Gretzky held the record since scoring his 802nd goal on March 23, 1994, to pass Howe. He added 92 more before retiring in 1999 after a total of 1,487 games over 20 seasons.
Gretzky now holds 54 NHL records. Two seem truly untouchable: 2,857 total points and 1,963 assists, which is more than anyone else has in goals and assists combined.
For NHL playoff goals, which do not count toward the record, Gretzky has the most (122). Ovechkin has 72. Gretzky also had another 56 in the World Hockey Association regular season and playoffs, while Ovechkin has 57 from his time in the Russia-based KHL.
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The Associated Press
