The Washington Capitals defeated the defending champion Florida Panthers 6-3 and sealed the victory with an ultimate cherry on top.
Ovechkin utilized a deke and a head fake to shed the Panthers’ Evan Rodrigues, giving him just enough space to release a shot from way downtown.
After Ovechkin hit the back of the net, there was a delay at Capital One Arena as officials reviewed the potential tally. The overhead camera had the decisive view, showing the puck cross the goal line just before the clock turned 0.0.
“In true O fashion: 0.1,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said post-game. “I looked at Raddy (Taylor Raddysh) and Raddy’s like, ‘It’s good. It’s good.’ The green light helps us of when a puck goes in and then the green light comes on so we thought it was going to be good. Then we got the replay at our feet and it was in with 0.1, so we’ll take it.”
The 39-year-old Ovechkin now has 25 goals in 37 games this season. If he continues his 0.68 goals-per-game pace, the Capitals captain would tie Gretzky’s record on April 4 vs Chicago and break it on April 10 vs Carolina.
Ovechkin’s empty-netter on Tuesday also extended his NHL record in the category to 63.
Alex Ovechkin inches closer to history as Caps double up Panthers
Dowd had two assists to go along with his goal, Andrew Mangiapane and Aliaksei Protas each collected one of each and Tom Wilson added a short-handed tally.
Logan Thompson made 30 saves as the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals snapped a two-game skid overall and extended their home point streak to 14 games (10-0-4).
Florida's Sam Bennett recorded a goal and an assist, and captain Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk also scored.
Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 20 shots for the Atlantic Division-leading Panthers, who saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt.
Eller converted a partial breakaway to give Washington a 3-2 lead at 2:19 of the third period before Mangiapane's centering feed was deposited home by Dowd at 6:10
Tkachuk wired a shot from the right circle that handcuffed Thompson to halve the Panthers' deficit 96 seconds later. However, Protas and Ovechkin sealed the win by scoring empty-netters.
Mangiapane wired a sharp shot from the left circle that sailed just inside the near post to open the scoring with 5:52 remaining in the first period.
Florida forged a 1-1 tie with 30 seconds remaining after forcing a turnover in the offensive end. Jesper Boqvist neatly backhanded a centering feed to Bennett, who cleaned up his own rebound for his 17th goal of the season.
With his team short-handed, Wilson forced a turnover in his own end before converting a return pass across the slot from Protas to give Washington a 2-1 lead at 1:15 of the second period.
Barkov responded just under three minutes later by converting a partial breakaway. Barkov's 13th goal of the season extended his point streak to four games.
