Ovechkin on brink of joining 500 club
CAPITALS 4, RANGERS 3, OT
new york» While career goal No. 500 is going to be special for Russian superstar Alexander Ovechkin whenever it comes, No. 499 was pretty amazing by itself.
Ovechkin made a length-of-theice rush and scored his second goal of the game at 1:25 of overtime Saturday as the Washington Capitals rallied to beat the New York Rangers 4-3 at Madison Square Garden.
“You don’t see a highlight goal every game, but it’s moments like this that he shows up,” said Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom, who forced overtime by sliding the rebound of Justin Williams’ shot under Henrik Lundqvist with only 5.7 seconds left in regulation. “They can’t do anything about it. It’s just amazing.”
The sequence of plays leading up to the winner was thrilling.
Braden Holtby prevented the Rangers from winning just seconds before Ovechkin scored. The Washington goaltender stopped Rick Nash in close, then combined with defenseman Nate Schmidt to stop Derek Stepan on the rebound attempt.
Ovechkin, playing in the 800th game of his career, got the puck and skated the length of the ice on the left side before cutting across the middle and beating Lundqvist to give Washington its 12th victory in 14 games (12-1-1). Ovechkin will try to join the NHL’s 500-goal club Sunday at home against Ottawa.
“Nash obviously took it to the net,” Holtby said after making 23 saves and improving to 19-0-2 in his past 21 starts. “That’s a pretty big, long body. It was a spinaround chance. I threw my right pad and had nowhere else to put it but to Stepan. He made a nice move, but Schmitty stuck with the play and made a game-saver.
“Those kind of plays, if you’re a confident group, they happen.”
Ovechkin got the loose puck next to his own goal, circled behind his net and then used his speed and great shot to end the game.
“I’m going to score one goal, sooner or later,” he said.