Alex Ovechkin celebrates goal No. 500. He added No. 501 a little later as the Capitals beat the Ottawa Senators, 7-1. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)

The Capitals cleared the bench, mobbing Alex Ovechkin for the happiest of hockey hugs. Every player wanted to touch him, his helmet, his shoulder, his jersey, anything. Andre Burakovsky embraced him, held on and kept jumping up and down.

Ovechkin often has reacted to his teammates’ goals like they were his own, and now the Capitals were returning the favor 500-fold.

For the captain who loves celebrations, the teammate known for stuffing shaving cream into the face of his teammates to celebrate the big moments and the one who reacts to every goal like it’s his first, the Washington Capitals treated Ovechkin’s 500th goal like the special occasion it was.

“It looked like it was 20 other Ovechkins jumping over the bench, right?” Nicklas Backstrom said.

“I didn’t expect it,” Ovechkin said.

[All 500 of No. 8’s goals]

Hats started to blanket the ice. Ovechkin skated out to the middle, lifted his arms up and clapped. Fans stood and applauded with him.

He handed his stick off to an equipment manager to save. A piece of masking tape went around the puck, and the achievement was penned in permanent marker, as if he would ever forget this.

Ovechkin finally sat down on the bench, but then he leapt up with both arms raised, taking it all in one more time.

“We all had big smiles on our face, almost as big as his,” Justin Williams said. “To watch that, you can’t help but smile.”

The final score of the Capitals’ game against the Ottawa Senators, a 7-1 Washington win, paled in comparison. As they had so many times before, fans had come to see Ovechkin, and as he had so many times before, he gave them what they wanted.

“Every day, every game, they support us and they support me,” Ovechkin said. “They deserve to be in that moment.”

No. 500 came on the power play from his sweet spot on the left faceoff circle, making him the 43rd player to reach the milestone and the fifth fastest. It was his 185th power-play goal.

[Ovechkin’s 500th, and the celebration that followed]

In the stands, his father, Mikhail, was standing like every other fan in the building, with his cellphone out to record the moment. Ovechkin’s mother, Tatyana, was also smiling in the stands, blowing kisses to the crowd with team owner Ted Leonsis beside her. Verizon Center just kept roaring, “O-vi.”

“Ovi getting it done fittingly in this building, which is only the right thing,” Capitals Coach Barry Trotz said. “I didn’t want to sit him out for any of the road games, so it was fitting he got it done here.”

It seemed inevitable that it would happen in this game, especially after his first shift. He was going for it, staying on the ice a whopping 78 seconds and attempting three shots. There were four Washington goals scored before his, each seeming to mock him.

He had his chances, seven shot attempts in the first period. There was the breakaway out of the penalty box in the second period when he hit the crossbar. He later had another breakaway that goaltender Andrew Hammond improbably saved.

“Maybe it’s not my time,” Ovechkin said of his thoughts. “Maybe it’s not going in.”

The inevitability really started Saturday, when Ovechkin netted goals No. 498 and 499 against the New York Rangers, setting the stage to get this historic one in Washington. Backstrom said he was happy Ovechkin had saved the goal for a home crowd.

[Fancy Stats: Crunching the numbers on 500 goals]

His teammates had planned a surprise to make it an even bigger show. A player known for his over-the-top goal celebrations wouldn’t do this one alone.

“He shows a lot of emotions when he scores,” Backstrom said. “That’s great. It’s good for the game, too. He’s always done it. It was fun to make an Alex Ovechkin celebration.”

Ottawa’s penalty kill entered the game ranked 28th in the league, no match for Washington’s second-ranked power play. When Mark Stone tripped Evgeny Kuznetsov in the second period, Ovechkin’s milestone goal felt like it just had to be coming. He unfurled a snap shot, but it went wide of the net.

Then Burakovsky passed to Jason Chimera at the goal line, and Chimera fed Ovechkin at the top of the left faceoff circle.



The Capitals’ youngest player (Burakovsky) and oldest (Chimera) got the assists.

Ovechkin fist-pumped to himself, and before he could do any more, he was surrounded.

“I didn’t realize we were jumping the bench to go on the ice,” Tom Wilson said. “I was waiting for the Senators to come out and start a bench-clearing brawl.”

As an exclamation point, Ovechkin scored No. 501 midway through the third period. Since he entered the NHL at the start of the 2005-06 season, Ovechkin leads the NHL in goals (501), points (934), power-play goals (185), power-play points (367) and game-winning goals (85).

“Typical Ovi,” T.J. Oshie said, “topping his goal and getting a second one.”