Ovechkin nets 1st playoff OT goal, Caps top Habs

After making NHL past during the regular season, Washington Capitals prima Alex Ovechkin made immoderate idiosyncratic past successful their Game 1 triumph implicit the Montreal Canadiens connected Monday.

Ovechkin scored the archetypal playoff overtime extremity of his vocation to triumph their bid opener, 3-2, astatine location successful his 152nd vocation postseason game.

"A extremity is simply a goal," Ovechkin said aft the victory. "Good things hap erstwhile you spell to the net."

Ovechkin is the all-time person successful regular play overtime goals with 27 successful 1,491 games. They're portion of his vocation full of 897 goals, having breached Wayne Gretzky's NHL grounds of 894 goals this season.

"The guy's the champion subordinate successful the world. What other tin you say?" said Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson, who made 33 saves successful the win. "He comes successful clutch. All game. It's a privilege to beryllium his teammate."

After an icing call, Capitals guardant Dylan Strome won a faceoff, with Montreal forwards Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov failing to wide the puck. Winger Anthony Beauvillier collected the puck for a changeable connected extremity and past tracked down his ain rebound to Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault's right. Montreal's Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle went to support Beauvillier, who slid a walk to an unfastened Ovechkin connected the doorstep for the extremity astatine 2:26 of overtime.

The overtime tally completed a monster nighttime for Ovechkin.

He opened the scoring connected the powerfulness play astatine 18:34 of the archetypal play and past assisted connected Beauvillier's second-period extremity to marque it 2-0 earlier finishing disconnected the pesky Canadiens successful overtime. It was the 37th multi-point show and 10th multi-goal crippled of Ovechkin's playoff career.

Ovechkin besides had 7 hits successful the crippled to pb each skaters.

Ovechkin is the oldest skater successful Stanley Cup Playoff past to origin successful connected each of his team's goals successful a game. He besides became the 4th oldest subordinate successful Stanley Cup Playoffs past to people an overtime extremity astatine 39 years and 216 days. Detroit's Igor Larionov was 41 years aged erstwhile helium scored a triple-overtime extremity successful Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes.

With his archetypal goal, Ovechkin passed Patrick Marleau and Esa Tikkanen (72) and tied Dino Ciccarelli (73) for the 14th-most playoff goals successful NHL history. Ovechkin's 74th vocation playoff extremity enactment him successful a necktie with Joe Pavelski for the 13th-most vocation playoff goals all-time.

The captain's overtimr heroism rescued Game 1 for the Capitals. The apical effect successful the Eastern Conference watched the Canadiens rally successful the 3rd play connected goals by Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki 5:13 isolated to nonstop the crippled to overtime.

"You tin spot wherefore they made the playoffs. That squad doesn't quit," Thompson said. "In the third, they didn't spell away. We've gotta respect them. They took it to america successful the third."

But alternatively than springiness Montreal immoderate much-needed assurance and a bid pb successful their upset bid, Ovechkin unopen the doorway successful OT.

"He played a hellhole of crippled tonight," Beauvillier said.