Sunday night, Alex Ovechkin finally broke Wayne Gretzky’s long standing record fr all-time NHL goals scored. The 39-year-old overtook the record scoring his 895th goal in a 4-1 loss against the New York Islanders.
Gretzky previously held the record at 894 goals for 31 years till Sunday night.
With his family and Wayne Gretzky watching from UBS Arena, Ovechkin unleashed a blistering wrist shot that sailed past fellow Russian Ilya Sorokin, to set the new record. Immediately following the shot, the game was paused to celebrate his achievement.
“What a day?” he told the crowd. “It’s a team sport. Without my boys, I would never stand there and obviously I would never pass a great one,” he said. “We did it, boys, we did it.
“Thank you, (Ilya Sorokin) to let me score 895 … and the last thing, all of you fans, for all the world, Russia, we did it, boys, we did it. It’s a history!”
After he finished speaking, the fans chanted “Ovi! Ovi! Ovi!” celebrating his achievement.
“We’re here today to celebrate this guy here, number eight. I can tell you firsthand I know how hard it is to get 894. Eight-ninety-five is pretty special,” Gretzky said. “They say records are made to be broken, but I’m not sure who’s going to get more goals than that.”
Ovechkin has spent his entire 20-season NHL career with the Washington Capitals, leading the franchise to its only Stanley Cup championship in 2018.
Earlier this year, he joined Gordie Howe as just the second player in league history to score 20 or more goals in 20 consecutive seasons.
Throughout his remarkable career includes, nine 50+ goal seasons, highlighted by a career-best 65 goals in the 2007–08 season. Ovechkin has 12 All-Star selections, three league MVP awards, and recognition in 2017 as one of the NHL’s 100 greatest players of all time.