Alex Ovechkin is two away from becoming the first player in NHL history with 900 goals as his Washington Capitals host the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday afternoon.
The 40-year-old forward scored the first goal of his 21st season — No. 898 of his career — in Friday’s 5-1 home win over the Minnesota Wild, the fourth straight victory for the Capitals.
“The chances were there,” said Ovechkin, who also had an assist. “Sometimes you just have to be patient and one goes in and I hope next game it’s going to be more.”
Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s previous record of 894 career goals late last season and has four points through five games. His goal Friday was also his 567th at even strength, which surpassed Gordie Howe for second all-time. Gretzky has 617.
Dylan Strome scored his first two goals of the season and had two assists in the victory against Minnesota.
“It felt like we had speed a lot through the neutral zone, which led to chances off the rush, and we were getting pucks back,” Strome said. “I thought tonight, every time it felt like we got a chance, we were getting the rebounds and continuing play. All four lines had some really good shifts in the O-zone.”
Tom Wilson added a power-play goal and an assist, Martin Fehervary had two assists and Logan Thompson made 13 saves.
The Canucks won their second game in two nights with a 3-2 shootout win over the host Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.
They defeated the Dallas Stars 5-3 in Thursday’s opener of a five-game road trip.
“The first back-to-back, so you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said. “It was a real heavy game in Dallas. I felt like the first period we didn’t have our legs. When that happens, sometimes it takes a while to get into it. We made it a little bit harder than we had to, but I like the way we kept going and came back again.”
Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves against the Blackhawks and stopped all four shooters in the shootout.
“I kind of like shootouts where it’s a battle mindset, one against one,” Lankinen said. “Just been doing a lot of that in practice. Thankfully we were able to put one in tonight. We got better as the game went on. A little slow start, but got to admit it was a little tough travel, back-to-back with some long travel, so I was proud of how the guys came in and battled to the end and got the win.”
Brock Boeser scored the only goal of the shootout in the fourth round after Jake DeBrusk and Max Sasson got the goals in regulation.
Both came in the second period as the Canucks rallied after falling behind 2-0 in the opening period.
Washington and Vancouver split last season’s two meetings, with each side winning 2-1 at home.
