Alex Ovechkin chips away at goals record as Kraken fall at Capitals

Kate Shefte, The Seattle Times on Mar 9, 2025

Published in Hockey

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WASHINGTON — Again, the Seattle Kraken were begrudgingly part of history in the making.

Seattle managed to stay with the Eastern Conference’s top team well into the third period Sunday afternoon. The Kraken fell, 4-2, with Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin icing the victory for Washington. Ovechkin’s quest for a record previously thought to be unbreakable is now in the single digits.

As he did Jan. 24 in Seattle, Ovechkin, 39, padded his goal total with an empty-netter. He is eight away from tying the all-time record of 894 goals held by Wayne Gretzky with 18 games left in the Capitals’ regular season.

“Whether he gets the number today, tomorrow, next week or next year, he’s gonna go down as the greatest goal scorer of all time,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said.

“He shows no signs of stopping.”

Ovechkin has scored 33 goals this season and already surpassed last year’s total. With the exception of the 2020-21 season, which was shortened to 56 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s scored at least 30 times in each of his 20 seasons.

Kraken captain Jordan Eberle scored his first goal since missing three months and 40 games following an awkward crash into the boards and surgery on his pelvis. Eberle tied the game at 2 near the game’s midway point, another milestone as he settles back into the lineup.

“Early on, there was adrenaline and excitement about getting back,” Bylsma said. “And you have to expect the grind of continued play.”

Later Eberle absorbed hard contact, came off the ice and was doubled over on the bench for a while. He skated around cautiously and continued taking regular shifts.

“Any time you miss that many games, it’s not easy coming back, but I feel like I’m up to speed,” Eberle said.

A new-look Kraken fourth line with something to prove showed some fight and provided some levity. Joey Daccord stayed in his net but Seattle’s other five players dived into a skirmish, one by one, in defense of defenseman Josh Mahura. Officials sent all five, plus their Washington counterparts, to the respective penalty boxes. They squeezed together for two long minutes, comically close.

“I liked the compete in the group. I liked the guys sticking up for each other,” Eberle said. “That shows team camaraderie. That’s the stuff we’ve talked about over the last little bit.”

Earlier Andre Burakovsky, who won the 2018 Stanley Cup with the Capitals, had the puck on his stick but a better option in linemate Shane Wright. Wright angled the pass into the net and immediately credited Burakovsky. Wright nabbed his 15th goal of the season, which tied Matty Beniers for fifth on the team.

Thirty-five seconds into the second period, the Kraken were on their heels throughout the sequence where Washington’s Martin Fehérváry charged in and tied the game. Dylan Strome scored through a logjam in front of the net less than three minutes later for Washington’s first lead. Eberle canceled it out.

Mahura was dumped along the boards seven minutes into the third period, which triggered a long and messy sequence where Wilson and recently recalled Kraken center John Hayden wanted a piece of each other, throwing their gloves suggestively while held back by officials across the center-ice logo. The penalty boxes filled and Seattle wound up with a two-minute power play it couldn’t convert on.

The man advantage finished 0 for 4 on Sunday.

“It’s a game where the power play needs to step up for you,” Bylsma said. “We got several opportunities to get a goal with a power play. It didn’t (happen), and it turns out to be the difference in the game.

“It was a hard fought game all the way to the end. The compete and effort was there. There was a lot of good from our team on both sides of the puck.”

The game remained tied at 2 until 4:16 remained on the board, when the Capitals scored on a screened Daccord (20 saves). Connor McMichael netted the go-ahead goal.

Ovechkin dropped in his league-leading eighth empty-net goal of the season and the packed afternoon crowd sent the Kraken home from a 1-2 road trip to chants of “Ovi! Ovi!”

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