WASHINGTON — Marc-Andre Fleury, who has given up the most goals among all NHL goalies to Alex Ovechkin during his chase to Wayne Gretzky’s goals record, got the last laugh.
Sure, Ovechkin scored a power-play goal, but Fleury gloved down Ovechkin as the Washington Capitals’ final shooter in a shootout as the Wild came from behind to beat the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals 4-3.
Marco Rossi scored his league-leading third tying goal with 10 minutes or fewer in regulation to force overtime, then Matt Boldy scored in the shootout as the shorthanded Wild improved to 14-3-3 on the road.
Without Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon, Jake Middleton and Jakub Lauko, the Wild improved to 7-1-1 in their past nine against Washington.
Marco Rossi. pic.twitter.com/5uXzD73AYp
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) January 3, 2025
Rossi’s tying goal came 15 seconds after Tom Wilson’s goal was waved off for a high-stick. That would have given the Caps a 4-2 lead not long after Martin Fehervary gave Washington a lead.
GO DEEPER
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Lakeville’s Charlie Lindgren committed one shorthanded faux pas, but other than that he was superb as the Wild had loads of chances from in tight that he turned away.
Ryan Hartman scored for the first time in a month and a half and assisted on Rossi’s tying goal, and Yakov Trenin scored a sensational shorthanded goal — the fourth of his career and second with the Wild — when he stripped Lindgren of both the puck and his stick, then had the patience to score a backhanded wraparound goal for a Wild lead.
one less guy on the ice? not a problem for Trenin pic.twitter.com/yHMtWlkGGd
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 3, 2025
Ovechkin inches closer to the Great One
Ovechkin entered Thursday’s game with 37 points in 23 career meetings with the Wild. That 1.61 points per game is his highest against any franchise.
So when Marat Khusnutdinov took a double minor in the second period on Fehervary with the Wild ahead 2-1, you knew it was buckle-in time.
Well, Ovechkin scored his 871th career goal to move within 23 of tying Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894 goals and 24 from passing him. Ovechkin has three goals in four games since his return from injury.
Ovechkin’s 28 goals all-time against Marc-Andre Fleury is his most against any goalie. Fleury will likely go down with the most because the next active goalie is Sergei Bobrovsky at 16.
Henrik Lundqvist has given up the second-most goals with 24. Carey Price and Kari Lehtonen gave up 22 goals each, while Ryan Miller and Cam Ward gave up 19.
ALEX OVECHKIN 🦅
He only needs 24 more goals to pass Wayne Gretzky! pic.twitter.com/FqKGxbTDVL
— NHL (@NHL) January 3, 2025
Hartman snaps long drought
It’s been a tough six weeks for Hartman, who last scored on Nov. 19. But the Wild veteran scored for the first time in 21 games by redirecting Zach Bogosian’s point shot just 64 seconds after Tom Wilson gave Washington a 1-0 lead.
Hartman had gone 50 shots between goals, but his game has been coming around of late with plenty of chances and a recurrence of his hard-nosed style.
He said last week that while it was frustrating, he had been keeping positive and knew the drought would snap soon.
Ryan Hartman with a quick response #mnwild pic.twitter.com/G9mPQ2sVll
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) January 3, 2025
Lambos’ debut on hold
When Spurgeon was injured, the Wild opted to recall left-shot Carson Lambos rather than right-shot David Jiricek. The Wild say they want Jiricek just to continue to play heavy minutes consistently in Iowa.
Coach John Hynes indicated there’s a chance we still see Lambos, but the team wanted to reward him for his solid play lately in Iowa and didn’t want to immediately throw him into the fire against Ovechkin and the Eastern Conference’s top team. Plus, it was time to play Travis Dermott, who had only played twice since the Wild took him off waivers from the Oilers.
The 21-year-old 2021 first-round pick said his first call was to his parents, then to his brother and girlfriend.
“You always dreamed of playing NHL and even just getting the call-up is really special,” Lambos said. “I still have big goals and long ways to go to get to what I want to be, but this is definitely something I appreciate.”
Hynes decided to keep the top pair of Jonas Brodin and Brock Faber, then created a Declan Chisholm-Bogosian pair as well as a Jon Merrill-Dermott pair.
“Spurgey’s not with us, but no one’s going to replace him,” Hynes said. “So everyone has to play their role, and Brodin and Faber don’t have to do anything different because Spurgey is out. They still play huge minutes. They still play important situations. They just gotta do their job.
“Dermott’s gotta do his job. Merrill’s gotta do his job. Bogo’s gotta do his job. Down the line, right? Just you don’t have to overcompensate for a guy. Play our team game, do what you do best as individual players.”
(Photo of Marc-Andre Fleury, Brock Faber and Alex Ovechkin: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
