Alex Ovechkin has now pulled even with Mr. Hockey on the NHL's all-time goals list. Ovechkin scored the 801st goal of his career against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday, tying him with the legendary Gordie Howe for second all-time.
The historic play started with a slick pass from Dylan Strome that put Ovechkin in position to fire a slap shot past Jets goaltender David Rittich. Ovechkin's goal came at 18:22 of the first period and opened the game's scoring in the Capitals' favor.
Back on Dec. 13, Ovechkin became just the third player in league history, along with Howe and Wayne Gretzky, to score 800 goals. Ovechkin came into that game against the Chicago Blackhawks sitting on 797 career goals, and he scored a hat trick to hit the historic milestone.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 NHL Draft, Ovechkin has been terrorizing opposing goaltenders since his rookie season in 2005-06. That year, he won the Calder Trophy with 52 goals -- and he hasn't slowed down since. On his way to establishing himself as one of the greatest goal-scorers in hockey history, Ovechkin has won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league's leading scorer nine times.
Ovechkin now needs just one more goal to pass Howe, and then he will set his sights on catching Gretzky. That will be a difficult task, though. Gretzky scored 894 goals in his career, which gives him more than 90 goals worth of cushion as Ovechkin continues his chase.
