Alex Ovechkin made a statement on national TV and is now 13 goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky
The Washington Capitals scored eight the day before over their rivals in the Pittsburgh Penguins and on Sunday afternoon on home ice against the Edmonton Oilers, the beasts of the east did not skip a beat. Led by Alex Ovechkin's hat trick to up his goal total in his storied career to 882, he is now 13 away from Wayne Gretzky.
Greatness in the form of Alex Ovechkin led the way
The Caps found themselves in an early hole at 1:42 with a power play goal from Leon Draisaitl. Tom Wilson tied things up at 17:15 for his 26th goal of the season. Pierre-Luc Dubois notched his 35th assist while Matt Roy notched his 16th apple.
At 19:36 the Caps got a power play goal with Jakob Chychrun's 17th goal of the season. Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome had the assists with their 19th and 39th, respectively. 2-1 would be the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 13-6.
Alex Ovechkin then took over. He got his first goal of the afternoon at 8:53 as Strome and Aliaksei Protas set him up. It was Ovechkin's 27th goal of the season, Strome's 40th assist of the season and Prtoas' 25th helper.
Then at 18:39 Ovechkin struck again on the power play off a feed from Chychrun for his 28th goal of the season and Chychrun's 22nd assist. Connor McMichael would then make it a 5-1 game with his 20th goal of the season. Carlson had his 33rd assist on the season while Protas had his 26th apple.
In the third period at 6:35 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made it a 5-2 game. At 10:38 Dylan Strome made it a 6-2 game with his 18th goal of the season. Protas had another assist for his 27th while Carlson upped his assist total to 34.
At 15:05 Jeff Skinner would get one back for the Oilers. Then at 17:22 Ovechkin would answer with his 29th goal of the season on an empty netter to complete the hat trick and send the crowd home happy. Charlie Lindgren picked up the win with 22 saves for an .880 save percentage.
The second period saw the Oilers outshoot the Caps 10-8. In the third the Caps outshot the Oilers 13-9 as well as 34-25 overall.
"Game by game. Today I had pretty good chances to score more, but I'll take three."Alex Ovechkin
There are 25 games remaining in the regular season and the Caps continued to protect home ice as they're 11-0-5 in their past 16 home games. Spencer Carbery added the following:
"I thought (that was) as good as we've played all season from start to finish. We were so dialed in from puck drop to the end of that game -- the bench, not only what guys were vocalizing on the bench, but what they were going and doing every shift after shift after shift against as good a team as there is in the League on a back to back."
Spencer Carbery
Next up for the Caps is a home game on Tuesday night against the Calgary Flames. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. and you can catch the game on Monumental Sports Network as well as 106.7 The Fan and Caps Radio 24/7.
