Ovechkin scored twice in Friday's 5-3 win over the Blackhawks.

EDGE Analysis

Ovechkin's final pursuit of Wayne Gretzky's record will end up being a two-part event -- the Capitals' captain tied the record with his 893rd and 894th goals in this contest, but he couldn't complete a hat trick to make history. The record-tying tally was vintage Ovechkin, a power-play goal from his office that put the Capitals ahead 4-3 in the third period. That also gave him a different piece of history, as it was the 136th game-winning goal in his career, breaking the tie he was in with Jaromir Jagr, per Dan Rosen of NHL.com. On top of it all, Ovechkin crossed the 40-goal mark for the 14th time in his 20 NHL seasons, including the third time in four years since he turned 36. He's at 68 points, 220 shots on net, 102 hits and a plus-18 rating through 60 appearances. All eyes will be on The Great Eight as he gets his next chance to set the all-time record in Sunday's game versus the Islanders.