Capitals: Remembering “The Goal” from Alex Ovechkin
There are many great Washington Capitals games featuring Alex Ovechkin but no goal was sicker than this one.
The crazy part of Alex Ovechkin‘s decorated Washington Capitals career isn’t just because he’s scored over 700 goals and is chasing Wayne Gretzky for the all-time record. It’s also the fact that his best all-time goal came in his rookie year right in front of that same legend.
At the time, the Capitals were on the road to take on the Phoenix Coyotes on Jan. 16, 2006 in Glendale, Arizona. The Capitals would cruise to a 6-1 win but only one goal was the one fans will remember. Ovechkin finished with two on the night.
The Caps went to the power play at 13:23 with Steve Gainey getting called for interference. Washington struck on the man advantage from none other than Alex Ovechkin for his 31st goal of the season at 14:13.
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Ovechkin was called for interference at 15:59, giving Phoenix the man advantage where they’d tie things up on a power play goal from Shane Doan. It was assisted by Keith Ballard and Petr Nedved. 1-1 would be the score after 20.
The Caps added four more goals in the second period. First it was Ben Clymer giving them the lead 30 seconds in assisted by Brooks Laich and Matt Bradley. It was Clymer’s sixth of the season.
The Caps went back to the power play when Mike Ricci was called for holding the stick at 2:17 and at 2:43 the Caps struck to make it 3-1 with Dainius Zubrus scoring his 11th goal of the season assisted by Ovechkin and Brian Willsie.
The Caps added to their lead at 11:39 with a goal from Brian Sutherby for his 10th of the season. Willsie had the helper on the goal. Matt Bradley would make it 5-1 at 13:41 with his fifth goal of the year assisted by Clymer and Laich. 5-1 would be the score after two.
The magical goal came at 11:54 in the third period. Off a pass from Brendan Witt, Ovechkin did a curl-and-drag, wound up spinning on his back but was still able to control the puck and get it past Coyotes netminder Brian Boucher.
More. When Alex Ovechkin and Matt Bradley checked out a car show. light
Alex Ovechkin went on to score 52 goals that rookie campaign and now has 706 goals in his career but none were sicker than the one he scored in his rookie year that afternoon in Glendale. Of course, Wayne Gretzky was coaching the Coyotes and even he was in awe of what he witnessed that day.