It's been a long wait for Alexander Ovechkin, 213 days to be exact. The 40-year-old center broke Wayne Gretzky's NHL goal record on April 6 when he scored his 895th goal. On November 5, local time, he reached the next milestone.
Barely three minutes into the second period, goal 900 came through a backhand chip over St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington's legs.
Both the home fans in Capital One Arena and teammates celebrated loudly with a jubilant Ovechkin.
Tried to steal the puck
Meanwhile, Binnington hid the puck in his pants, something that was noticed by the television cameras. A linesman also saw what happened and told the goalie to bring out the historic puck.
"I saw it. But I'm not going to comment on it," Ovechkin said.
He prefers to talk about the dream limit achieved.
"All milestones are special moments. But this night is definitely special when you're the first to do it (900 goals)," he told nhl.com.
I'm still playing, but when I stop I'll think about it, says the record-breaker.
Neither the end of last season nor the beginning of this one has gone quite as well as “Ovie” had hoped. Before the meeting with St. Louis, he had scored two goals in 14 games. But there is no question of putting his skates on the shelf just yet.
I have a lot of games left, so we'll see what happens," Ovechkin said.
Many matches left
At the end of October, Ovechkin reached another dream limit when he played his 1,500th game in the North American Major League Baseball at home against Ottawa.
"1,500 games is big, but nobody has scored 900 goals. So it will be interesting and it will be a big deal," he said at the time.
Ovechkin came to Washington in the 2005/2006 season and has remained with the capital team since then, with the exception of the 2012/2013 lockout season.
Washington won the game 6–1.
Age: 40 years
Team: Washington Capitals
NHL games: 1,504
NHL goals: 900
NHL points: 1,631
Stanley Cup: 1 (2017/2018)
Drafted: First overall by Washington in 2004
Source: NHL
