Alex Ovechkin scored twice and hit the 30-goal mark for the record-extending 20th time in his NHL career, and the Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.
Ovechkin’s latest milestone 30-goal season is three more than the next-closest player (Mike Gartner, 17 times), according to ESPN Research. He has hit that mark in all but one season: the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign, where he had 24 in 45 games.
Ovechkin joined Gordie Howe (who did it two times), Teemu Selanne and Johnny Bucyk as the only players in NHL history to score 30 goals in a season at age 40 or older, per ESPN Research.
Ovechkin’s 30th and 31st goals marked his 185th career multigoal game; only Wayne Gretzky has more with 189.
Tom Wilson also had two goals, Jakob Chychrun had a goal and two assists and Ryan Leonard added a goal and an assist. Pierre-Luc Dubois had three assists for the Capitals, who have won three straight as they try to climb back into playoff position.
Travis Sanheim, Carl Grundstrom, Christian Dvorak and Denver Barkey scored and Porter Martone made his NHL debut for the Flyers, whose three-game winning streak came to an end.
Late in the first, Wilson’s shot from the slot made it 1-0 in his 900th career NHL game. Minutes later, Ovechkin cashed in Matt Roy’s cross-crease feed to extend Washington’s lead to 2-0.
The Flyers fought back to open the second, evening the score in a span of 4:36 minutes on a point shot from Sanheim and layup from Grundstrom. Washington didn’t take long to respond, though, as Chychrun’s one-timer on a power play made it 3-2. Leonard scored another power-play goal later in the period to put the Capitals back up by two.
While Dvorak pulled things to 4-3 to open the third, Ovechkin got to the front and buried a one-timer to restore the two-goal lead with his 928th career goal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.