WASHINGTON — By the time the puck dropped at 7:08 p.m. at Capital One Arena on Thursday night, The Ovi Show had already begun.
In his first home game since scoring his 800th career NHL goal, Alex Ovechkin was showered with admiration, sprinkled with wonder. A pregame video recapped his hat trick two nights prior. The “Ovi! Ovi!” chants rained down from the 400 level when he was announced in the starting lineup. His son, Sergei, revealed an “800″ banner that hung over second 119.
Jake Oettinger spoiled the party — flipping the metaphorical table with a season-high 45 saves, and sullying the punch bowl by delaying history in a 2-1 Stars win over the Capitals.
Oettinger prevented Ovechkin from scoring goal No. 801, which would have tied Gordie Howe for the second-most in NHL history, leaving Wayne Gretzky as the only player for Ovechkin to chase down.
“He played an incredible game, gave us a chance to win and probably should be all three stars tonight,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “Nothing’s really too big for him. I’m sure there was some pressure on him tonight obviously with Ovi’s chase there. Did an unbelievable job.”
Benn scored a power-play goal, and Colin Miller scored his second goal as a Star to support Oettinger. Benn’s goal came 48 seconds into the third period, and Miller’s followed 89 seconds later as he bounced a point shot off Lars Eller’s butt. The Stars had turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead.
Oettinger did the rest, making 15 saves in the third period, including four after the Capitals pulled goalie Charlie Lindgren.
“You probably call that a goalie win for us,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought he was our best player. That game really got tilted against us in the second period. I thought that’s where he won us the game.”
The Stars have begun their five-game road trip 2-1-0, with wins over Washington and New Jersey, in addition to a last-minute loss in Pittsburgh.
Conor Sheary scored the only goal for the Capitals, on an Ovechkin pass to the backdoor. It was the only way for Washington to beat Oettinger on Thursday night.
The day centered around Ovechkin long before the game began. Multiple people talked to Oettinger after morning skate about Ovechkin’s shot at history. DeBoer, perhaps slyly, mentioned to his team that the next two goals that Ovechkin scored would draw the entire Capitals bench onto the ice.
“Obviously, I don’t want that to happen,” Oettinger said. “Not against us. He can do that stuff another night. Always fun playing one of the best to ever do it. It’s a fun challenge and we stepped up.”
Ovechkin finished the night with an assist, five shots on goal and seven shot attempts in 21:58 of ice time.
The Stars also survived two Washington power plays, when Ovechkin was on the ice for all but six seconds of the four minutes. Ovechkin’s only goal against Oettinger came on the power play on March 20.
Asked what he has learned about playing against Ovechkin, Oettinger said “not much.”
“You can’t really learn much on him,” Oettinger said. “His shot’s one of a kind. He’s special, but they’ve got a lot of other good guys over there too. I think even on the goal they scored, I got a little too focused on him and I’d like to take that back.”
For Oettinger, he came one save shy of matching his career-high (in the regular season) of 46 saves, set in February in Colorado. Oettinger, of course, had a 50-save performance in Game 4 against the Flames in the spring, and a 64-save night in Game 7 in Calgary.
It’s the latest sign that Oettinger relishes a momentous occasion.
Even before his heroics against the Flames, he had a history in high school, college and on the international stage for rising for big games. In his first full season as a No. 1 goalie in the NHL, he started 5-1-0 in his first six starts. He didn’t want to live in NHL lore as the butt of someone else’s joke.
“Nobody wants to be part of history that way,” DeBoer said. “For sure, Jake doesn’t want to be that guy on the highlight reel 50 years from now being scored on in that situation. I think it was a little bit of motivation for us, for sure, to try and shut him down.”
Oettinger is now 3-1-0 in his last four starts, with a .938 save percentage and 1.93 goals against average.
The Stars are in the hardest stretch of their season so far, taking on a host of Metropolitan Division teams with either success in the recent past, or currently. They travel to face the Hurricanes on Saturday.
They’ll head with a win — thanks to Oettinger.
“He’s unflappable,” DeBoer said. “He’s a special goalie, special person and he’s got great leadership, he’s got great respect in our room, guys play hard for him. Those are all the characteristics of an elite goalie that you need.”
Beating an old friend
Oettinger’s victory over Lindgren helped settle the Battle for Lakeville at 1-1.
Both Oettinger and Lindgren are from Lakeville, Minn., and Oettinger is good friends with Lindgren’s younger brother Ryan, who plays for the Rangers. Last season, Charlie beat the Stars when he was a member of the Blues.
“Finally, he’s had my number and he played great tonight, too.”
Lindgren stopped 24 of 26 shots on Thursday, a loss that snapped the Capitals’ five-game win streak.
Minor trade
The Stars acquired minor league defenseman Oskari Laaksonen from Buffalo on Thursday night in exchange for defenseman Joseph Cecconi.
Laaksonen, 23, is a right-handed defenseman that was originally a third-round pick by the Sabres in 2017. He has 53 points in 109 career AHL games and will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season.
Cecconi, meanwhile, was a fifth-round pick by the Stars in 2015, and was a recent and regular healthy scratch for AHL affiliate Texas. Cecconi, 25, never played an NHL game for Dallas.
This is the second minor league “change of scenery” trade the Stars have executed in the last two seasons. A year ago, they traded Tye Felhaber to Tampa Bay for Alexei Lipanov. Neither Felhaber nor Lipanov have played an AHL game this season.
Third-period changes
DeBoer shook up his forward lines in the third period, after a second period in which he said they “hung [Oettinger] out to dry there basically.” It looked like this:
Jason Robertson — Roope Hintz — Joe Pavelski
Radek Faksa — Tyler Seguin — Denis Gurianov
Mason Marchment — Wyatt Johnston — Jamie Benn
Joel Kiviranta — Luke Glendening — Ty Dellandrea
“I thought we really were on our heels the entire period,” DeBoer said. “Just shake the group up a little bit, energize everybody.”
Miller’s second
Miller’s goal was his first since Nov. 5 at Edmonton, and both goals have come from the right point. Against the Oilers, it deflected off goalie Jack Campbell. In Washington, it went off Eller.
“Had my head down, just shot it,” Miller said.
