Sandin made a terrific effort in the defensive zone before lugging the puck up the ice and feeding Alex Ovechkin for his 874th career NHL goal. The 24-year-old Swede has four goals and 18 goals in 45 games thus far in the 2024-25 campaign.

Ovechkin’s goal also produced Washington’s 30th victory of the season – the Caps join Winnipeg as the second team in the League to reach that plateau in 2024-25 – and it helped Logan Thompson nail down his 20th victory of the season, and his second consecutive shutout.

It started with a trade between the Bruins and Capitals (and Wild as a third-party broker). The Capitals moved out two pending free agents, Garnet Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov, in exchange for a 2023 first-rounder, 2024 third, 2025 second and Craig Smith.

The 39-year-old winger took a pass from Rasmus Sandin on a 2-on-1 breakaway and fired it past rookie Leevi Merilainen, the record 179th goaltender he's scored on.

Artemi Panarin scored twice, Chris Kreider got the go-ahead goal with 9:38 left and the New York Rangers rallied for a 5-3 victory over the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday night. Reilly Smith tied it 3-all with a short-handed goal 28 seconds into the third period for the Rangers,

Leevi Meriläinen joined an exclusive — but not enjoyable — club for goaltenders, becoming the 179th netminder that Ovechkin has beat over his 20-year career. Ovechkin's goal on Meriläinen moved him past Jaromir Jagr for the all-time record of most goalies scored on in the history of the NHL.

Alex Ovechkin scored with 1:53 left in overtime to give the Washington Capitals a 1-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night. Ovechkin's goal was the 874th of his career, moving him within 20 of Wayne Gretzky's NHL record,