Trigger: Ovechkin scored a double and saved Washington from defeat in the NHL match with Ottawa

Alexander Ovechkin continues to impress the fans with a phenomenal game. The Washington Capitals captain, at 36, is having one of the best seasons of his career. In the lists of snipers and scorers, he fights Edmonton forwards Leon Draisaitl and Conor McDavid, who at the beginning of the regular season seemed out of reach for competitors. And after meeting with Ottawa, he approached Wayne Gretzky's record by two more goals.

However, the home meeting with the Senators was not as simple as it looked at first glance.

One of the main outsiders of the tournament last won against the Capitals in 2017, and in the current draw in 34 meetings, he has already suffered 20 defeats.

However, in Saturday's confrontation, it was the guests who first opened the scoring.

Already in the second minute, Canadian defender Tony Chabot scored.

And by the beginning of the third period, "Washington" was completely burning 0:2.

While it's not like the guests attacked a lot, they landed just 13 shots on goal against the Capitals' 21.

It was not possible to capital command and to realize the majority.

Twice Ovechkin and partners had such an opportunity, but both ended in nothing.

In a situation where you need to turn the tide of the meeting, Washington head coach Peter Laviolette prefers to give Ovechkin more playing time.

According to him, it is Alexander who is able to save the match. 

“Everyone knows how the Russian throws the puck.

There is no recipe here.

But if the meeting turns out to be difficult, and we need a goal, then how not to release it?

He is a competitive guy, he knows how to change the course of the match.

If the scoreboard is a tie or we're down by one goal, maybe he can be the trigger for our weapon.

I can't explain the analysts' theories that use statistics to explain why Ovechkin is so good in the third period.

But I just know that he can go out and score a goal, deciding everything in one or two shifts, ”said the specialist in an interview with the official NHL website.  

And so it happened in the confrontation with the Senators.

In the third period, the hosts came out with a completely different attitude, starting to circle around someone else's zone from the first shift.

And after two minutes reduced the backlog in the long run.

Trevor van Riemsdyk hit the back of goalkeeper Matt Murray, and Ovechkin was the first on the rebound.

Less than eight minutes later, the Russian scored again.

Niklas Backström made a pass to the captain, who was alone on the spot, and he hit the Ottawa goalkeeper with a touch.

The puck crossed the line, but then jumped out of the gate, so the judges did not immediately see the goal, but the replay dispelled all doubts.

Ovechkin scored two or more goals in a match for the 155th time in his career.

According to this indicator, he reached the sole third place in the history of the league, ahead of Mario Lemieux (154).

More often, only Wayne Gretzky (189) and Brett Hull (158) managed to do this. 

The game went into overtime, in which Alexander could score a hat-trick, but Backstrom brought victory to Washington.

The Swede intercepted the puck from an opponent in a foreign zone and easily outplayed Murray.

Ovechkin was recognized as the first star of the meeting with Ottawa and deservedly received congratulations from his colleagues.

However, the matches of the Russians' rivals in the bombardment and sniper races turned out to be successful on Saturday.

Despite the double, the captain of "Washington" lost the sole lead in both lists.

Rangers forward Chris Kreider now has the same number of goals (29), who scored a hat-trick in the confrontation with Arizona.

And Draisaitl caught up with Alexander in terms of points (58).

The German forward scored two goals and made two assists in the game against Calgary.

The striker scored for the first time since January 6.

At the same time, the leader of the Capitals is getting closer to Jaromir Jagr.

Before repeating the result of the famous Czech, he only needs to score seven times.

At the moment, the Russian has 759 goals.

And, probably, few people doubt that this winter the hockey player will be able to climb to the third line in the list of the best snipers in the history of the NHL.

Also on account of Ovechkin was 1378 (759 + 619) points in 1239 matches, which is the 24th indicator in the history of the NHL.

The next goal for Alexander is the result of Brett Hull (1391), which is now 13 effective actions behind.