Capitals' Alex Ovechkin reaches another milestone against Islanders

WASHINGTON — The Islanders, yet again, could not keep the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin from reaching a career milestone.

Ovechkin scored his 767th career goal to move past Jaromir Jagr for third place on the NHL’s all-time list, lifting a shot off Evgeny Kuznetsov’s faceoff win at 15:02 of the third period in the Islanders’ 4-3, eight-round shootout loss on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena.

Ovechkin’s milestone goal gave the Capitals a 3-2 lead.

"Congrats to him," said Islanders coach Barry Trotz, Ovechkin’s bench boss for four seasons, including a Stanley Cup in 2018. "I wish he wouldn’t have scored against us but he keeps climbing the ladder."

Just over a year ago, on March 16, 2021, Ovechkin scored career goal No. 718 in the Capitals’ 3-1 win over the visiting Islanders to pass Phil Esposito for sixth place in league history.

And on Jan. 18, 2020, Ovechkin’s 26th career hat trick in a 6-4 win over the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum left him with 692 career goals, tying him with Steve Yzerman for ninth place on the NHL’s all-time list.

The Islanders did keep Ovechkin from reaching the 700-goal plateau in their 5-3 win in Washington on Feb. 10, 2020.

Wayne Gretzky is the NHL’s all-time leader with 894 goals and Gordie Howe is second with 801.

"How physical he is and durable he is, that’s even more incredible to me," Trotz said. "He’s running over people. He doesn’t mind contact. He puts himself in dangerous positions. He’s 36. You would think, someplace along the line, he would break."

Challenges go Isles way

The Islanders were on the winning side of two second-period goal challenges.

First, Capitals coach Peter Laviolette unsuccessfully challenged that captain Anders Lee interfered with goalie Vitek Vanecek on Brock Nelson’s goal to tie the game at 1 at 4:55.

Then, with the game still tied at 1, Trotz successfully challenged that Evgeny Kuznetsov was offsides on defenseman Justin Schultz’s apparent goal at 14:06.

Isles files

Kyle Palmieri’s second-period goal extended his point streak to five games (three goals, three assists). Anders Lee also has a five-game point streak after his third-period (eight goals, one assist). Jean-Gabriel Pageau extended his point streak to five games with a second-period assist (one goal, five assists). Josh Bailey’s second-period assist extended his point streak to four games (three goals, four assists)…Anthony Beauvillier’s four-game point streak was snapped…Trotz altered his lineup slightly, other than rotating goalies, reinserting Matt Martin for Ross Johnston on the fourth line. Kieffer Bellows and defenseman Sebastian Aho remained healthy scratches.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.