Alex Ovechkin made history again on Thursday night.
The Washington Capitals captain scored a hat trick against the Utah Mammoth, becoming the first player in NHL history to score a hat trick against 21 different franchises. He passed Brett Hull, who accomplished the feat against 20 teams. It was also Ovechkin’s 34th career hat trick, moving him past Hull into fourth place on the all-time list behind Wayne Gretzky (50), Mario Lemieux (40) and Mike Bossy (39).
Washington won 7-4 at Delta Center, with Ovechkin’s empty-net goal at 19:54 of the third period sealing the final score. He now has 926 career goals, which remains the NHL record.
“I think in the second period we played solid,” Ovechkin said. “We controlled the puck. We did exactly what we needed to in the offensive zone.”
Ivan Miroshnichenko scored twice in his first multi-goal NHL game. Anthony Beauvillier and Rasmus Sandin each added a goal and an assist. Logan Thompson made 36 saves for Washington.
Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said the team needed the offensive outburst after a recent scoring drought.
“Goals have been hard to come by since Calgary,” Carbery said. “You could feel it on the bench, the confidence that builds when a few go in the back of the net for us.”
Washington sits six points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference with nine games remaining.
Dylan Guenther scored twice for Utah and Clayton Keller and Mikhail Sergachev each had three assists. The Mammoth took 50 penalty minutes and coach Andre Tourigny was not pleased with how his team handled the emotional nature of the game.
“I am disappointed in the way we controlled our emotions,” Tourigny said. “There is a way to show up for your teammates, but we got carried away emotionally.”
Utah remains three points ahead of Nashville for the first wild card in the Western Conference.
Ovechkin also extended two other records on the night. He scored against his 189th different goaltender in NHL history, the most ever, including twice against former Capitals teammate Vitek Vanecek. He also became just the third player in NHL history to score more than one hat trick at age 40 or older, joining Gordie Howe (three) and Johnny Bucyk (two).
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