NHL

Vegas Golden Knights at Washington Capitals

· National Hockey League

Capitals end the Golden Knights' season-opening winning streak at 3 with a 4-2 victory

Ovi makes more history with 700th career assist for Capitals

Ovechkin, who is chasing Wayne Gretzky's NHL career goals record, became the 60th player in league history to record 700 assists. He has three assists through Washington's first two games of the season and remains 42 away from breaking Gretzky's mark.

Jakub Vrana scored on his first shot in his return to the Capitals, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2018 when they beat Vegas in the final. Vrana made the team after attending camp on a tryout.

Jakob Chychrun also scored his first since joining Washington in a summer trade from Ottawa. Thompson, another one of a handful of newcomers from an offseason of change, beat the Golden Knights after they traded him rather than give him a bigger role.

Adin Hill, the goalie who backstopped Vegas to the Cup in '23, allowed four goals on 22 shots. Victor Olofsson and Jack Eichel scored for the Knights.

Takeaways Golden Knights: This was something of a schedule loss after playing at home Sunday night and getting no time to adjust to the Eastern Time Zone.

Capitals: Got their legs under them after starting much later than most teams, including their first two opponents.

Key moment Chychrun batted in a goal off the rush from Nic Dowd to make it 4-1 Capitals 6:13 into the second period.

Key stat Ovechkin joined Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Jaromir Jagr, Marcel Dionne and Phil Esposito as the only six players with 700 goals and 700 assists.

Up next The Golden Knights make their second stop on a three-game Eastern Conference road trip Thursday at Tampa Bay, while the Capitals host Dallas the same night.

Regular Season Series

WSH leads series 1-0

Scoring Summary

Goal 1st Period 6:02 Jakub Vrana Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Andrew Mangiapane (1)
Goal 1st Period 17:49 Victor Olofsson Goal (3) Snap Shot, assists: Tomas Hertl (2), Mark Stone (5)
Goal 2nd Period 3:06 Tom Wilson Goal (2) Snap Shot, assists: Dylan Strome (2), Alex Ovechkin (2)
Goal 2nd Period 5:16 Aliaksei Protas Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Alex Ovechkin (3)
Goal 2nd Period 6:13 Jakob Chychrun Goal (1) Batted, assists: Nic Dowd (1), John Carlson (2)
Goal 2nd Period 7:17 Jack Eichel Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Mark Stone (6), Ivan Barbashev (4)

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/vgk.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originVGK https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/wsh.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originWSH
15 Blocked Shots 13
9 Hits 24
1 Takeaways 5
26 Shots 22
1 Power Play Goals 1
4 Power Play Opportunities 3
25.0 Power Play Percentage 33.3
0 Short Handed Goals 0
0 Shootout Goals 0
25 Faceoffs Won 30
45.5 Faceoff Win Percent 54.5
7 Giveaways 13
3 Total Penalties 4
6 Penalty Minutes 8

Game Information

Capital One Arena

Location: Washington, DC
Attendance: 16,727 | Capacity:

2024-25 Pacific Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Vegas 11 6 24 2
Calgary 10 6 23 3
Los Angeles 10 7 23 3
Edmonton 10 8 22 2
Vancouver 9 6 21 3
Seattle 10 9 21 1
Anaheim 8 8 18 2
San Jose 6 11 16 4

2024-25 Metropolitan Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Carolina 14 4 28 0
Washington 13 4 27 1
New Jersey 12 7 26 2
NY Rangers 12 4 25 1
NY Islanders 7 7 19 5
Philadelphia 8 10 18 2
Pittsburgh 7 10 18 4
Columbus 7 9 16 2
Full Standings