#6 Ovechkin continued to chase Gretzky as we were working on this
Sometimes you beat the buzzer and sometimes you don't. In this case, Ovechkin scored again this time on Marc-Andre Fleury of the Minnesota Wild for his 18th goal in 22 games and number 871 in his career. The tally marked Ovechkin's 20th goal in 24 career games against Minnesota.
We'll pin these numbers now in case they change heading into Jan. 4's home contest with the New York Rangers. Ovi is first in the NHL in goals per games played averaging 0.82. He has 13 on even strength and five on the power play along with three game winning goals and three empty net goals. Ovechkin is on pace for 54 goals this season as we're writing this and he's doing so at age 39.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 18th goal of the season tonight in his 22nd game of 2024-25 and is 24 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky for the most goals in NHL history. #Caps pic.twitter.com/rxz95V2oEU
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) January 3, 2025
As you can also see in the graphic from Capitals PR, Ovechkin and Gretzky are both tied at a 0.60 goals per game rate. While Nicklas Backstrom sadly isn't out there on the ice for this final homestretch of the chase, Dylan Strome has set things up nicely as the current team leader of assists this season helped out on 13 of Ovechkin's 18 goals.
Speaking of Marc-Andre Fleury, it was Ovechkin's 28th goal in 47 games against him, the most goals he has scored against a single goaltender in his career.