Ovechkin scores 1,000th goal, Capitals fall to Avalanche in OT

Alex Ovechkin had scored 999 regular-season and playoff goals as an NHL player before Sunday’s overtime loss against the Colorado Avalanche.

The opposition still left him alone in his office — in the left faceoff circle — in the third period on Sunday, and Ovechkin didn’t disappoint.

He scored his 1,000th career goal on the power play with just over five minutes remaining to tie the game at 2.

It was enough to send the game into overtime and secure one point, but it wasn’t enough to win as Colorado’s Brock Nelson scored the game-winner less than a minute into the three-on-three overtime.

“We’re all super happy for him. We just wish we could have gotten the win with it, make it a little bit better in the locker room,” said rookie forward Justin Sourdif.

Ovechkin is the second player in NHL history to surpass the 1,000-goal mark between postseason and regular-season play. Wayne Gretzky — who Ovechkin passed for the regular-season goals record last season — found the back of the net 1,016 times and still holds that lead.

“Ever since I was a kid watching the NHL, he was one of my idols. I don’t take a day for granted, playing with him,” forward Connor McMichael said. “Every milestone that goes by, it seems like they just get cooler and cooler.”

The milestones are always nice, Ovechkin said after the game. But the fact that the goal arrived in a crucial moment with his team fighting for its playoff life made it even sweeter. 

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“We played a solid game. It sucks that we lost, but right now, we get a point and we take it,” Washington’s captain told reporters. 

Two points would’ve been more beneficial as Washington looks to inch toward the playoff picture. Colorado sits atop the NHL standings, but Sunday’s result felt like a game that got away from Washington. 

“I thought we played a pretty good hockey game overall,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Made a few mistakes, they make one more play in overtime. We couldn’t get off.”

Sourdif opened the scoring in the first period of the back-and-forth affair, thanks to a breakaway. Washington’s third line center skated past Colorado’s defense and beat goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood after receiving slick passes from Matt Roy and Connor McMichael.

A defensive slugfest followed, with neither team able to capitalize on their chances through two periods. 

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The two squads — who have struggled with special teams throughout the campaign —  couldn’t convert any of their first five combined power-play opportunities.

The Capitals’ defense finally faltered a minute into the final frame. The typically precise Logan Thompson made a mental error when he left the crease to field a puck behind the net. But the goaltender absent-mindedly gave possession to the Avalanche’s Martin Necas before he could return to the goal.

Necas slotted a pass to Gabriel Landeskog, who scored one of the easiest goals of his career to tie the game.

It was the first five-on-five goal allowed by the Capitals in more than a week. Thompson had held the opposition scoreless until the final moments of each of the last two games, when the opposition scored after pulling their goalies off the ice in favor of an extra skater.

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“He bailed us out countless times tonight. It’s not on him,” defenseman Jakob Chychrun said of Thompson. “He’s been doing an unbelievable job playing the puck. It’s going to happen. We’ve got to continue to work harder for him.”

Colorado stole the lead a few minutes later off another Capitals turnover. Washington’s rookie defenseman Cole Hutson couldn’t control a loose puck in the defensive zone. Avalanche center Nic Roy took possession and fired the puck past Thompson to take a 2-1 advantage.

Ovechkin’s 1,000th goal gave the Capitals a shot of life in the third, but Nelson quickly extinguished that hope in overtime.

With Sunday’s loss, the Capitals are five points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

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The Capitals have 11 games left, so that’s not an insurmountable gap. But what really makes a playoff spot an uphill fight is that three other teams stand between Washington and Detroit and all of them, including the Red Wings, have one or two games in hand on the Capitals.

“Guys are tired and we’re battling. It gets closer to playoff hockey: it’s really tight games, tight checking. It’s like a chess match, moving back and forth, trying to control play,” Sourdif said. “We just have to learn how to win those 2-1 hockey games.”

The Capitals return to action on Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues, the first game of a three-game road trip out west. Washington will then travel to Utah to face the Mammoth on Thursday before visiting the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.

• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.