Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin kept the history books busy with a show-stopping performance in Thursday night’s 8-4 road victory over the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. The 40-year-old superstar recorded his 33rd career hat trick, tying Brett Hull for the fourth-most in league history, and added an assist, giving him four points on the night.
Ovechkin opened the scoring just one minute into the first period, converting a power-play opportunity off a faceoff to mark his 905th NHL goal. He then set up Ethen Frank’s goal two minutes into the second period, giving Washington a 2-1 lead. The Russian legend completed his hat trick with two late goals in the third period, a rush goal with 4:57 remaining and an empty-netter from his own zone at 2:04, padding his career goal count to 907.
This milestone also moved Ovechkin past Joe Sakic into 10th place on the NHL’s all-time points list, with 1,643 points. He now sits just 65 points behind Sidney Crosby for ninth all-time. The hat trick makes Ovechkin only the sixth player in NHL history to score a hat trick after turning 40, joining Hall of Famers Jaromir Jagr, Gordie Howe (three times), Johnny Bucyk (twice), Teemu Selanne, and Nicklas Lidstrom. At 40 years and 64 days old, he is the ninth-oldest player to achieve this feat.
Ovechkin has scored in four straight games and in five of his last six, with seven goals and three assists over that stretch. Scoring six times in his last four games, he becomes just the second player aged over 40 to pull off such a feat, first achieved by Selanne back in March 2011, according to ESPN Insights.
Moreover, his 13th goal scored in the opening minute tied him with Mark Messier for the second-most in NHL history, trailing Crosby’s 15.
The Capitals’ win was their third consecutive victory, improving their record to 11-8-2. With 10 regulation wins, Washington is tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the most in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, Montreal has lost five straight and seven of its last eight games.
