Alexander Ovechkin continues his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky's eternal record in goals in the National Hockey League. In a match against the Minnesota Wild, the Russian sniper scored a double. However, his «Washington Capitals» suffered another defeat. The Wild managed even without Kirill Kaprizov.
On the one hand, it would seem that Ovechkin rarely scores against Minnesota. Indeed, in terms of the number of goals scored, the Wilds are in 18th place out of 31 NHL clubs that have become victims of a Russian sniper. But it is also important to consider the number of matches «Washington» with the participation of Ovi against the «savages». There have been 20 of these until today, and the captain of the “capital” scored 17 times in them. And if you recalculate the implementation of moments, then the confrontation with the “Minnesota” is very successful for Alexander – 17 out of 95 shots reached their goal. 17.9% sales is the highest among all teams (same in matches against the «St. Louis Blues»).
It seemed that in the current championship, Ovechkin's relationship with the club from Saint Paul was somewhat tense. In the Capitals' only match with the Wild this season, the Capitals were defeated (2:4), and Alexander himself left the site without goals (although he made two assists). But today, the Russian's statistics have improved, and all doubts and guesses have disappeared at about the same speed with which Ovi sends pucks into the opponent's goal from his office. She — the puck — develops, by the way, a speed of about 160 kilometers per hour.
To close the gap with Wayne Gretzky in the fight for the title of the best scorer in the history of the NHL championships, Ovechkin was helped by his old friend Marc-Andre Fleury. The famed Canadian goaltender, who played in the best hockey league in the world for almost 15 years with the Pittsburgh Penguins, a few more seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights and the Chicago Blackhawks, and now working for Minnesota, has developed a special relationship over many years of his career with Ovi. This is especially true of tough and epoch-making battles in the Stanley Cup. Today, Fleury played the 46th match against the Russian goalscorer in the championship — more than any goalkeeper in the entire league. And Alexander has already scored 27 goals in his career — more than anyone else.
In the next match against Tsvetok, the Russian scored a double. His first goal turned out to be the most classic: Ovechkin, for the 297th time in the overseas campaign, converted the majority with a one-timer from the left face-off circle.
The second puck from Ovi flew into the goal of his favorite goalkeeper, also from the Russian office area, but not after a one-timer, but from a perfect wrist shot, which even such an experienced goalkeeper as Fleury could not cope with.
“I don’t know «Am I too proud to miss Ovi the most. But I root for him in his pursuit of the Gretzky record. I think Alex deserves to be the best. He does his job for so long and consistently every season. I hope he's all will still get to the record,» Fleury said before the match.
To a variety of eternal records, Ovechkin is separated by some moments. To the sole title of the best sniper in the history of the NHL — 76 goals. To the absolute record for the number of regular seasons with 40 goals or more — one puck. To the record for the seasons with 50 goals or more — 11 goals. And it may seem that the last point in the current championship will remain unattainable for Ovi, but nothing can be ruled out. “Washington” for the remaining 11 games objectively will not improve their position and is unlikely to reach the playoffs, so why not focus on helping their leader?
To similar thoughts of the players, “Caps” can lead, including today's result, because “Washington” lost again – for the fifth time in the last seven matches of the championship. Problems for the “capital” began in the very debut of the meeting, when Matt Baldy scored a double by the 5th minute. Peter Lavioletta's team regularly concedes in the starting segments of games, and today looked very unconvincing. However, like CSKA in the series with the Yaroslavl “Locomotive” in the second round of the current KHL playoffs, “Washington” after 0:2 got together and gave a good fight to the strong “Minnesota”. “Capitals” from time to time worried about Fleury, surpassed the “savages” in the number of accented and potentially scoring shots and organized really cool combinations.
But they failed to make a comeback. This was partly influenced by the game in the minority in the debut of the third period, when TJ Oshie got 5 + 10 for a fight with Matt Dumba. The American forward «Caps» stood up for his friend Evgeny Kuznetsov, who was seriously injured after Damba's hit, but sentenced the team to a key conceded goal.
Toward the end of the meeting, Boldy consolidated the advantage of Minnesota and scored a hat-trick. For reference: the Wild, in the absence of Kirill Kaprizov, scored 24 goals in five games without an injured Russian.