Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER
In a battle between teams from different ends of the NHL spectrum, the Washington Capitals scored a decisive 5-1 win over the San Jose Sharks Saturday afternoon at HP Pavilion.
Alex Ovechkin celebrates his third period goal, the 887th of his career, in the third period of the Caps 5-1 win over the San Jose Sharks Saturday afternoon at HP Pavilion in San Jose. The goal moved Ovechkin within eight goals of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s All-Time NHL record.
Coming into the game with the best record in the NHL, Washington jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead over San Jose, owners of the worst record in the league, in the first period with Alexandar Georgiev in goal. The Capitals Dylan Strome opened the scoring at the 7:33 mark with assists from Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson. Ten minutes later Aliaksei Protas found the back of the net for his 29th goal with the help of Lars Eller and Wilson before Taylor Raddysh’s goal a minute later from John Carlson and Pierre-Luc Dubois signaled the the rout was on.
Washington’s Tom Wilson and the Sharks Zack Ostapchuk mix it up during the Capitals 5-1 win over San Jose Saturday afternoon.
A San Jose goalie change to Georgi Romanov helped stabilize the game for the Sharks leading to a scoreless second period before Macklin Celebrini closed the gap to 3-1 on an assist from Tyler Toffoli at the 6:19 mark of the final period. The momentum was short lived however as Trevor van Riemsdyk scored for the Caps just forty seconds later. Ovechkin then connected at the half way point of the period for his 34th goal of the season, and 887th of his career, just seven behind Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record with 15 games remaining in the season.
San Jose Macklin Celebrini (71) is congratulated by teammates William Ecklund and Tyler Toffoli (L-R) following a goal in the Sharks 5-1 loss to the Washington Capitals Saturday.
The Sharks will now have five days to recover before their next game, a Thursday evening matchup at the tank against the Carolina Hurricanes.
GAME NOTES:
Celebrini’s 21st goal gave him the lead amongst NHL rookies, passing the Flyers Matvei Michkov. He trails Montreal’s Lane Hutson by two points in the overall scoring race among rookies.
Washington out shot the Sharks 28-20 with Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson stopping 19 of the 20 shots he faced.
