Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images

Alexander Ovechkin is now the Washington Capitals’ career leader in hat tricks. Saturday night in Toronto, Ovechkin scored three goals to help the Caps secure a 4-2 win over the Maple Leafs.  The hat trick broke a tie between himself and Peter Bondra for the Caps’ franchise leader in hat trick goals. 

Ovechkin scored his first goal about twelve minutes into the first period.  He added his second tally with a power play goal with less than a minute to go in the opening frame.  Ovechkin capped his hat trick by getting an empty net goal near the end of the game.

So far, Ovechkin has had a total of three hat tricks this season.  His latest hat trick gives him 18 goals for the season, and now is in first place in the NHL Goal scorer’s race

In addition to becoming the franchise leader in hat trick goals, he is now in a tie for 14^th place in the NHL All Time career list, currently tied with Darryl Sittler and Pavel Bure.  His next hat trick would place him as the career leader for career hat tricks by a Russian-born player, and would break the tie between himself and Bure in that category.

Ovechkin also moved up in the NHL career leaders in power play goals.  With his 217 power play goals, he is now tied with Jaromir Jagr and Mike Gartner for 10^th place.  Incidentally, both Jagr and Gartner are both former Capitals, with Gartner having spent the bulk of career with the Caps.   He and Jagr are tied for first place in power play goals for an active player.  The next player on the career power play list, at Number 9. is Dino Ciccarelli, another former Capitals.

His three goals against Toronto also broke the tie he held with Mike Bossy for 21st place on the NHL All Time List for Goals.  With 576 goals, he is now only one goal away from tying Mark Recchi who currently sits in 20^th place.

This goal scoring milestone occurred on a day where he met cancer survivor Alex Luey before the game.  After the game, Luey accompanied Ovechkin for his post-game interviews on Hockey Night in Canada.  Ovechkin gave Luey the “Hockey Night in Canada” towel they had given him and also gave him his helmet, his gloves, and his stick, all autographed.

Related Reading
Ovechkin’s Hat Trick Helps Capitals Rake Maple Leafs, 4-2
NHL Recap of Game

By Diane Doyle

View this post on Instagram

This was @aleksandrovechkinofficial’s third hatty of the season, but this one was extra special. #HockeyFightsCancer

A post shared by NHL (@nhl) on Nov 25, 2017 at 7:21pm PST