{"id":544276,"date":"2026-04-06T19:54:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/544276\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T19:54:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:54:29","slug":"alex-ovechkin-scored-his-895th-career-goal-and-broke-the-nhl-goals-record-one-year-ago-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/544276\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th career goal and broke the NHL goals record one year ago today"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year ago today, Alex Ovechkin<\/a> broke an NHL record that many thought would never be broken.<\/p>\n

Two days after registering his 893rd and 894th career goals in front of his home fans<\/a>, Ovechkin found the back of the net on a Washington Capitals\u2019 power play 7:26 into the second period<\/a>, surpassing Wayne Gretzky\u2019s career mark and ending his improbable chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chasing days are done!\u201d Monumental Sports Network\u2019s Joe Beninati yelled.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ovechkin belly-flopped on the ice to celebrate goal 895 \u2014 he later admitted that was totally not intentional<\/a> \u2014 and Capitals players emptied the bench to congratulate their captain. A sold-out UBS Arena of 17,255, featuring both New York Islanders fans and many Capitals supporters who had made the trip up north, roared loudly and gave Ovechkin a standing ovation as history was made.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The play developed after Islanders\u2019 penalty killers cleared the puck down the ice. Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren<\/a> stopped the biscuit behind the net, leaving it for John Carlson<\/a>. The Caps\u2019 legendary rearguard skated the puck up the ice and dropped the puck to Dylan Strome<\/a>, reloading behind him in the defensive zone. Strome then skated into neutral and hit Tom Wilson<\/a> with a short pass on the right side, gaining the zone. Wilson then quickly sent a diagonal seam pass to Ovechkin at the top of the left circle, who fired a wrist shot past Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just tried to find him on the entry there and then when I was skating to the net and the puck went in the net, the next 15 seconds \u2026 I truly just kind of blacked out,\u201dWilson said that day. \u201cI\u2019ve got to watch it back, because I don\u2019t remember what happened. It was just chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some advanced scouting by the coaching staff also tipped the Capitals off on what to do against the Islanders\u2019 penalty kill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe joked with Mitch Love as our power play break-in coach, our breakout coach,\u201d Strome said. \u201cAnd I said, I went right up to him because we talked, \u2018The Islanders have like a two and two box.\u2019 So he said, \u2018You know, most teams are one three.\u2019 So most teams, you can carry it and then kick it out. And he said, \u2018The Islanders is a little early kick out. So I went up to him right before the faceoff. I said, \u2018Early kick out, right?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Yeah, early kick out.\u2019 So, they were kind of in that exactly what he talked about. Kicked it out to Willie and Willie made a great pass though. And obviously now we can finally say the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NHL stopped the game to honor Ovechkin with an on-ice ceremony<\/a> that they planned to be seven minutes \u2014 it lasted 22. Ovechkin, along with his family, was joined on the ice by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, and the former record holder Wayne Gretzky.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say records are made to be broken, but I\u2019m not sure who\u2019s going to get more goals than that,\u201d Gretzky said. \u201cI said I\u2019d be the first guy to shake your hand when you broke the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a day, huh?,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cLike I always said, all the time, it\u2019s a team sport and without my boys \u2014 the whole organization, the fans, the trainers, coaches \u2014 I would never stand there and obviously I would never pass the \u2018Great One.\u2019 So, fellas, thank you very much. I love you so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Nicklas Backstrom is here, TJ Oshie, fellas, I love you. We did it, boys. We did it,\u201d he said emotionally.<\/p>\n

He also thanked Sorokin, a fellow Russian, for being his latest beaten goaltender, saying \u201cThank you to Sorokin to let me score 895. I love you, brotha.\u201d It was the first time in three attempts Ovechkin had dented the twine against Sorokin.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of you fans, the whole world, Russian, we did it, boys. We did it. It\u2019s history,\u201d Ovechkin continued. \u201cAnd the most important thing, to my mom, my family, my beautiful wife, my father-in-law, my beautiful kids, thank you. I love you so much, and without you, without your support I would never stand here. So, I love you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin\u2019s goal would end up being the only one the Capitals scored that day as they fell to the Islanders 4-1<\/a> in a mostly listless performance that I can barely recall.<\/p>\n

Washington Capitals\u2019 anniversary video<\/p>\n

After the game, Ovechkin was saluted by the team with another beer bath, then took photos with all his teammates, family, and friends in attendance. The most notable moment was when Nicklas Backstrom, unable to play in the NHL anymore due to his hip, walked in and congratulated his former teammate<\/a>. The two exchanged a long hug as Backstrom said something into Ovechkin\u2019s ear. The duo then took a photo with the milestone 895th career goal puck before Ovechkin kissed Backstrom on the cheek. Backstrom assisted on 279 of Ovechkin\u2019s 895 career goals, the most of any other player<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBacky is the guy that helped most assist on my goals,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cAs soon as I see him, I almost cry. Me and him been together since Day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorokin walked over and gave Ovechkin his goalie stick<\/a>, taking a photo together with Ovechkin and Gretzky.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good experience for me,\u201d Sorokin said.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin signed game sheets, hats, and beer cans for his teammates before they flew home<\/a>. Later that night, they celebrated Ovechkin\u2019s milestone in downtown DC at Balos Estiatorio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just an honor to be living through this and to see this,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cYou know, 10-year-old me or 10-year-old any of us, to be in a room with Wayne and Ovi during this moment, is so special. He\u2019s taken us on an amazing journey, and it\u2019ll be the honor of my career to play with him, learn so much from him, win with him, watch him score this goal. There\u2019s really no words to describe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

RMNB\u2019s coverage of Alex Ovechkin\u2019s 895th goal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year ago today, Alex Ovechkin broke an NHL record that many thought would never be broken. Two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5114],"tags":[191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-544276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-capitals","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-capitals","13":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116359519498945676","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}