I’m Still Here: Capitals 5, Blackhawks 3
The Blackhawks largely avoided becoming a part of history but still lost 5-3 to the Washington Capitals on Friday night as Alex Ovechkin tied Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record for goals scored during an NHL career.
Ovechkin entered the game with 892 goals for his career and added No. 893 just four minutes into the first period to open the scoring:
Washington goal!Scored by Alex Ovechkin with 16:08 remaining in the 1st period.Assisted by Dylan Strome and John Carlson.Washington: 1Chicago: 0#CHIvsWSH #ALLCAPS #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/7B4jXN85dR— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 4, 2025
The game was tied at one when Frank Nazar’s zone entry gave Chicago possession in the offensive zone and an excellent cross-crease pass from Landon Slaggert set up Tyler Bertuzzi for a fairly easy tap-in goal:
Chicago goal!Scored by Tyler Bertuzzi with 06:05 remaining in the 1st period.Assisted by Landon Slaggert and Frank Nazar.Washington: 1Chicago: 1#CHIvsWSH #ALLCAPS #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/37tvH9iWAR— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 4, 2025
In the first minute of the second period, Chicago went ahead 2-1 after a give-and-go from a pair of first-round picks in Oliver Moore and Nazar gave the latter a goal and the former his first career NHL point:
Chicago goal!Scored by Frank Nazar with 19:29 remaining in the 2nd period.Assisted by Oliver Moore and Patrick Maroon.Washington: 1Chicago: 2#CHIvsWSH #ALLCAPS #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/vqbCUVM5Dv— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 5, 2025
Washington tied the game at two when Martin Fehervary jumped on the rebound created after Connor McMichael walked Pat Maroon and fired a shot that Spencer Knight stopped but couldn’t fully corral:
Washington goal!Scored by Martin Fehérváry with 12:51 remaining in the 2nd period.Assisted by Connor McMichael and John Carlson.Washington: 2Chicago: 2#CHIvsWSH #ALLCAPS #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/tp8sry6Q4f— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 5, 2025
Just eight seconds later, though, Phillip Kurashev took advantage of his rare playing opportunity and put Chicago ahead 3-2, pouncing off the rebound after a neat Landon Slaggert redirect of an Oliver Moore pass that was tough to corral:
Chicago goal!Scored by Philipp Kurashev with 12:41 remaining in the 2nd period.Assisted by Landon Slaggert and Oliver Moore.Washington: 2Chicago: 3#CHIvsWSH #ALLCAPS #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/wkzznGjS8k— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 5, 2025
Chicago’s lead made it into the third period but not much longer, though, as old friend Dylan Strome was credited with Connor Murphy’s own-goal that tied the game at three about four minutes into the final period:
Washington goal!Scored by Dylan Strome with 16:13 remaining in the 3rd period.Washington: 3Chicago: 3#CHIvsWSH #ALLCAPS #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/FPL6DUVJfA— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 5, 2025
It always felt like Ovechkin was going to be the one to break the tie and he did just that during a power play in the third from his usual spot at the left faceoff dot to tie Gretzky’s all-time mark:
Power play goal for Washington!Scored by Alex Ovechkin with 13:47 remaining in the 3rd period.Assisted by John Carlson and Andrew Mangiapane.Washington: 4Chicago: 3#CHIvsWSH #ALLCAPS #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/2mq84YQATs— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 5, 2025
Ovechkin will have to break the record some other time, though, as Capitals rookie Ryan Leonard added an empty-netter for the first goal of his NHL career to seal the Washington win.
Empty net goal for Washington!Scored by Ryan Leonard with 01:36 remaining in the 3rd period.Washington: 5Chicago: 3#CHIvsWSH #ALLCAPS #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/0YKxQsVVOg— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 5, 2025
Notes
If there had been a small gripe related to Nazar’s play lately, it’s that he hadn’t been finishing all of the chances he’d been generating, which made it quite refreshing to see him light the lamp in this game while also using his incredible speed to establish the possession which ultimately led to Bertuzzi’s goal. Given how much jump there was from Nazar in this game, it’s no surprise that his line with Bertuzzi and Teuvo was the one most consistently generating offense in this game. Extremely excited to see what he’s going to accomplish with a full 82-game NHL schedule next season.
Oliver Moore looked significantly better in this game than he did against Colorado on Wednesday night, which led to the first two points of his NHL career. Nice to see some offensive chemistry with Nazar on that give-and-go for Nazar’s goal and hopefully there’s more where that came from.
An update from Wednesday’s recap: three games in, still nowhere near enough evidence to indicate Sam Rinzel plays anywhere other than Chicago for the start of next season.
Now five games without a goal for Bedard and he has just four total in the last 22 games. Nothing we’re going to lost sleep over, but it’d sure be nice if there was a mini-burst of goals before the season ends, wouldn’t it?
Every game, it seems, there’s something Levshunov does that makes you take notice. In this one, there was a brewing odd-man rush for Washington near the middle of the second period that Levshunov saw developing and then stopped dead in its tracks by immediately attacking the puck carrier (Strome) and forcing him towards the boards before swiping the puck entirely. He’s not perfect (slow to react to the puck on that ENG at the end) and he may still spend time in the AHL next season, but there’s also undeniable talent there for the Hawks to unearth.
Levshunov busting up a 3-on-2 before it even hits the line is why I end up tearing out the hair I don't have about how passive the Hawks usually are. Kid's got instincts let him use them.— Sam Fels But Who's Buyin'? (@felsgate.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 7:25 PM
I just cannot deal with this Pat Maroon stuff anymore, man. Reichel was out because he missed a team meeting which is a perfectly acceptable punishment for a disappointing moment from him and Kurashev skated in his place, but why Kurashev isn’t the one skating in other games instead of Maroon is just beyond logic a this point. Don’t care that this is Maroon’s swan song — let him skate the season finale, fine. The other games? Get Reichel back in the lineup Sunday keep Kurashev in as well, and bench the guy who got danced before the Fehervary goal and took the penalty that led to the winner. We don’t need to keep doing this.
At some point late in the second period when Chicago was up 3-2 in a building that was clearly rocking given the history on the line and the words “playoff atmosphere” rattling around everyone’s mind, my thoughts went back to some of those early moments back in the ’07-08 Hawks season when they missed the playoffs but some glimpses of what was to come were witnessed: games like that season’s home opener when Kane scored on Hasek in the shootout to help beat Detroit. Thought we might get one of those tonight, with a lineup full of kids walking into a potential history-making night and deciding it wasn’t going to happen on their watch. It’s still early, though, so we’ve got time for some of those to happen down the road. But it was fun to entertain the possibility during the second intermission.
This is a Hawks blog, of course, so I’d believe most people here weren’t gunning for Ovechkin to break the record in this game — I personally did not need to see Chicago on the other end of that highlight for the rest of time — but there’s also something mesmerizing about watching something so undeniably great happening right in front of you. Alex Ovechkin is going to break a goal record largely established in a hockey era when goalies wore pads comically small compared to present standards and the butterfly style that’s taken over the sport was virtually nowhere to be seen. What we’re witnessing may never be replicated and the instances when that really, truly happens in sports are rarer than we may realize. Hope he scores 15 against the Islanders on Sunday, although a record of such magnitude really deserves to be scored in front of a home crowd, which will happen on Thursday when Washington hosts Carolina.
Postgame, Washington coach Spencer Carbery confirmed Ovechkin did not want to go on the ice with Chicago's net empty."He wants to break the record with a goaltender in the crease."— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) April 5, 2025
Game Charts
Three Stars
Alex Ovechkin (WSH) — 2 goals
John Carlson (WSH) — 3 assists
Dylan Strome (WSH) — 1 goal, 1 assist, continuing to prove those of us at SCH right who always believed he very much belonged in the NHL as a top-six forward
What’s Next
The Blackhawks return to the United Center to host the Penguins on Sunday at 5 p.m....
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