Goal No. 893 gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 3:52 of the first period. Ovechkin set up at the bottom of the right circle and scored with a one-timer off a pass from Dylan Strome, who had circled around the net.

The 39-year-old has 41 goals in 60 games this season. He scored his 894th goal in his 1,486th NHL regular-season game, all with Washington, which selected him with the No. 1 pick in the 2004 NHL Draft.

Gretzky scored 894 goals in 1,487 NHL regular-season games with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers before retiring in 1999.

Gretzky was in attendance to watch Ovechkin equal a record many used to think would never be broken; the 64-year-old had held sole possession of the mark since scoring his 802nd goal to surpass the previous record of 801 goals held by Gordie Howe while playing for the Los Angeles Kings against the Vancouver Canucks at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles on March 23, 1994.

Before then, Howe had held the NHL goal record since scoring his 545th on Nov. 10, 1963 to overtake Maurice Richard, who scored 544 goals.

Gretzky scored his 894th and final goal playing for the Rangers against the New York Islanders on March 29, 1999.

Ovechkin, who is in his 20th season in the League, scored his first two goals in his NHL debut against Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Pascal Leclaire on Oct. 5, 2005. Leclaire was the first of the NHL-record 182 different goalies Ovechkin has scored against.

The Moscow, Russia native also owns the NHL records for power-play goals (324) and overtime goals (27) and, with goal No. 894, broke a tie with Jaromir Jagr for the most game-winning goals (136).

This is Ovechkin’s 14th season scoring at least 40 goals, increasing his NHL-record total. He also owns the NHL record for most 30-goal seasons (19) and is tied with Gretzky and Mike Bossy for most 50-goals seasons (nine).