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SALT LAKE CITY — The spotlight at the Delta Center was fixed on a visiting player during Monday's matchup between the Utah Hockey Club and top-four Washington Capitals.
And with good reason.
Thirty-nine-year-old forward Alex Ovechkin entered the game needing 28 goals to match Wayne Gretzky's all-time NHL goals record, and got two more in Utah en route to a 6-2 Caps victory to move them to 13-4-1 on the season.
"I think they were really opportunistic," Utah head coach Andre Tourigny said of Washington. "They had the killer instinct and they pulled away."
Goals number 867 and 868 for Ovechkin came on either end of the first intermission to give Washington a commanding 4-1 lead after an opening goal for the home team by Jack McBain three minutes into the game.
#ALLCAPS Alex Ovechkin: 27 goals from setting the NHL's all-time goals record.
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 19, 2024
At 0.83 goals per game this season, he's on pace to break the record on January 30 in Ottawa pic.twitter.com/XzvigxMbBk
Ovechkin's current pace has him on track to break Gretzky's record on Jan. 30, though the Hockey Club travels to Washington 10 days later on Feb. 9 should he be delayed. A delay that may happen after Ovechkin fell to the ice in the third period following an accidental knee-to-knee collision with McBain. Ovechkin limped off the ice and didn't return. After the game, Washington coach Spencer Carbery said the star forward was still being evaluated.
Ovechkin took over first place in the NHL scoring race on Monday with a league-best 15 goals through 18 games.
Nick Bjugstad ended the four-goal run for the Caps with a second Utah goal 11:44 into the second period, but the Hockey Club was unable to find a goal during its seven power plays on the night and fell to 7-for-50 on the man advantage this season.
"We don't really need cheerleaders, we need to fix the issues," Ian Cole said after the game. "We should be self-motivated. We should be professionals here. So, like, let's look at it objectively, let's figure out what's going wrong, and let's fix what's going on and move on."
Washington scored two more goals in the third period to set a new high for the most goals allowed in a game by Utah this season (six) and drop its record to 7-8-3 in the inaugural campaign.
