Ovechkin breaks Gretzky’s all-time record with 895th goal

ELMONT, N.Y., April 6 (Reuters) – Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th career NHL goal on Sunday to break the hallowed all-time record of Wayne Gretzky that was once considered unbeatable.

Ovechkin’s landmark moment came in the second period of the Capitals’ road game against the New York Islanders when the 39-year-old Russian fired home from distance as wild cheers reverberated around UBS Arena.

Ovechkin dived on to the ice in celebration as his teammates jumped off the bench and swarmed over him in scenes of utter joy as Hall of Famer Gretzky smiled broadly in the crowd and joined the standing ovation.

“Like I always say, all the time, it’s a team sport and without my boys, the whole organization, the fans,” Ovechkin said. “I would never pass ‘the Great One’ (Gretzky).”

The goal marked the latest feat in a glittering career that will inevitably usher Ovechkin into Hockey’s Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and the game was halted for several minutes as the league honored his achievement.

“895 is pretty special,” Gretzky said. “They say records are made to be broken but I’m not sure if anyone’s going to get more goals than that.”

A sea of Capitals red overwhelmed the stands in Elmont as fans traveled to chilly and wet Long Island hoping to witness history.

They began cheering “Ovi! Ovi!” the moment their captain’s foot touched the ice and kept their faith alive as the home team made a fast start with two first-period goals.

There were gasps as Ovechkin took a shot that ricocheted off Islanders’ goaltender Ilya Sorokin’s stick less than three minutes into the second period.

Throughout his career, Ovechkin has enjoyed success from his signature spot by the left face-off circle on the power-play and he used that winning formula again to claim his record goal.

His trademark sense of humor was on display as he acknowledged compatriot Sorokin for letting the record-breaking goal through and taking a place in the footnotes of hockey history.

“Thank you to Ilya Sorokin,” he said. “Love you, brother.”

The Islanders added a goal in the second period and another in the third to secure a 4-1 win but the score scarcely seemed to matter for Capitals fans basking in history.

The Washington captain began the 2024-25 NHL season 42 goals shy of breaking the all-time mark set by Canadian Gretzky, who at the time of his retirement in 1999 owned or shared 61 league records.

Ovechkin made a red-hot start to the season, scoring an NHL-leading 15 goals in his first 18 games, and was on course to break Gretzky’s record in February before suffering a broken leg during a November game against Utah.

The injury caused Ovechkin to miss 16 games, the longest absence of his career, and cast doubt on whether he would reach Gretzky’s mark before the end of the regular season on April 17.

But Ovechkin, one of only three players in NHL history to score 800 goals, picked up where he left off on his return and used his world-class shot to get the record chase back on track.

With the Capitals assured a spot in the playoffs, Ovechkin said he was relieved to have the record race – and the wall-to-wall media coverage that came with it – behind him.

“Finally, no one’s gonna ask me about ‘when are you going to do it?’,” he said.

Among his many league records, Ovechkin passed Gretzky in 2022 for the most road goals in NHL history, and in 2024 topped the Canadian for most career empty-net goals.

In 2018, Ovechkin, the face of the Capitals franchise who for years bore the brunt of the blame for his team’s shortcomings, led Washington to their first Stanley Cup championship.

The “GR8 Chase”, so-called for Ovechkin’s jersey number, had captivated hockey fans around the globe and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman saluted the charismatic Russian as “an unstoppable force”.

“A unique package of effervescent personality, dynamic physicality and other-worldly talent for shooting the puck,” Bettman said in a statement.

“And today, he stands alone.”