Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin tied Jaromir Jagr for No. 3 on the NHL’s all-time goals list at 766 after scoring twice in a 5-4 win at the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
Ovechkin, 36, scored his 35th goal of the season at 13:23 of the second period, creating the scoring chance with a punishing check on Calgary defenseman Chris Tanev in the corner. He tied Jagr by scoring his 36th goal into an empty Calgary net with 1:48 remaining in the third period.
Ovechkin has 766 goals in 1,253 games in the NHL dating back to 2005-06. It took Jagr 1,733 games to reach 766 goals. He missed three seasons (2008-09 through 2010-11) while playing in the Kontinental Hockey League.
Jagr, 50, last played in the NHL during the 2017-18 season. He’s continued his career with Kladno of the Czech Extraliga, competing in their season finale on Tuesday at Prague’s O2 Arena, in a game that raised funds for Ukrainian families seeking asylum in the Czech Republic after Russia’s invasion.
It was Ovechkin’s 120th career game-winning goal, putting him one goal behind Gordie Howe for second all time, trailing only Jagr (135). Ovechkin recorded his 157th career multigoal game, leaving him one shy of tying Brett Hull (158) for the second-most multigoal games in NHL history. Goal No. 766 was Ovechkin’s 47th career empty net goal, trailing only Wayne Gretzky (56).
Of course, there’s a greater chase at hand for Ovechkin and Gretzky. Ovechkin now trails Gretzky’s all-time NHL goals record (894) by 128 goals. If Ovechkin passes Jagr, the next benchmark will be Gordie Howe’s 801 career goals.
It was Ovechkin’s first road game following his comments on Feb. 25 about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ovechkin has been an ardent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin over the years. In 2017, he campaigned on behalf of Putin by starting a social media movement called Putin Team.
“Please, no more war. It doesn’t matter who is in the war — Russia, Ukraine, different countries — we have to live in peace,” Ovechkin said.
Flames fans frequently booed Ovechkin when he touched the puck on Tuesday night.