The sellout crowd of 17,255, including a large contingent of Capitals fans who traveled from Washington, seemed to sense the goal coming when Islanders forward Casey Cizikas was called for tripping at 7:00, giving the Capitals their first power play of the game. After taking the ice to chants of “Ovi! Ovi!”, Ovechkin and the Capitals first power-play unit needed only 26 seconds to cash in.

Taking a pass from Dylan Strome, Tom Wilson carried the puck into the Islanders zone on the right wing before sliding the puck across to Ovechkin. He skated into it at the top of the left circle and whipped a shot in past Sorokin on the short side for his 325th power-play goal, increasing his NHL-record total.

“We had a perfect view,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Because that puck comes lateral, and ‘O’s’ coming in on the left side. And this is the true greatness of Alex Ovechkin: I saw, there was nothing. I couldn’t even see Sorokin, let alone netting. And he shoots that puck, and I didn’t even know how it went in.

“I don’t know how it got through all the different bodies and the screen …. and it finds a way through and beats him short side. It’s the ultimate goal-scorer’s goal for the greatest of all time.”

The Capitals flooded off the bench and mobbed Ovechkin at center ice. The Islanders stood near their bench and applauded and tapped their sticks with respect to Ovechkin and the historic moment.

“I thought it was perfect,” said Strome, who has assisted on 21 of Ovechkin’s 42 goals this season. “Everything about it was perfect: the way he shot it, the way he wound up and shot it. I think it was a picture-perfect goal.”

The game was paused for a 15-minute ceremony, featuring NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Gretzky offering their congratulations.

“We have all just witnessed history in front of greatness,” Commissioner Bettman said. “Wayne, you’ll always be “The Great One’ and you had a record that nobody ever thought could be broken, but Alex, you did it. You have been amazing.”