Capitals’ Ovechkin scores 500th goal

With 3:41 remaining in the 2nd period in a game versus Ottawa, Alex Ovechkin scored on the powerplay, making him the 43rd player in National Hockey League history to reach the milestone.

Playing on arguably the best Washington Capitals team of his tenure in 2015-16, Alex Ovechkin hopes to soon add one of the few things missing from his resume, a Stanley Cup Championship.

On a night in which the Washington Capitals matched their season-high goal total, 30-year-old captain Alex Ovechkin stole the spotlight and basked in its glow.

Ovechkin potted a pair of goals – the first of which was the 500th of his career – in Sunday’s win over the Senators.

Ovechkin reached the mark in vintage fashion, scoring from beyond the left hash marks during a second-period power play to give the Capitals a 5-1 lead.

He is the league’s top scorer with 26 and nobody has scored more goals than him since 2005.

Ovechkin was the first overall pick in the 2004 draft by Washington.

Jonathan Toews had a goal and two assists to help Chicago chase Semyon Varlamov and improved to 18-5-1 at home.

Colorado defenceman Tyson Barrie claimed the third star with three goals and three assists in four games.

Justin Williams, T.J. Oshie, Zach Sill, Tom Wilson and Dmitry Orlov also scored in the rout. Jason Chimera passed the puck from behind the goal line on the right-wing side of the ice to the top of the left circle for Ovechkin, who promptly wristed a high shot past Sens goalie Andrew Hammond.

Corey Crawford stopped 34 shots for the Blackhawks and Semyon Varlamov allowed four goals on 20 shots before he was replaced by Calvin Pickard, who stopped 13 of 15 shots in relief for the Avalanche. “Can they? Well, that’s an individual thing”.

There will be more history in Ovechkin’s future, but for now, he’s content to enjoy this moment for what it was and move on to the day-to-day grind of getting the Capitals to their ultimate goal. This was a historic night, and Ovechkin saw this as something he and the Capitals accomplished together. “It’s really hard to score in this league right now”.

His 501st came in the third, the last of the Caps’ seven goals.