Vancouver Canucks goalie Lankinen holds obscure Ovechkin-related record
This probably hasn’t been the NHL season that Vancouver Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen envisioned.
The 30-year-old netminder has just eight wins in 38 starts this season (8-25-5). His 25 regulation losses are the most among all NHL goaltenders.
While he’s been hung out to try by a porous defensive structure, his save percentage of .877 is the 10th-worst mark in the NHL (among 72 goaltenders to play at least 10 games this season).
However, on Thursday night, he ended up making obscure NHL history.
It might not be much of a consolation prize for Lankinen, but it is a pretty big flex.
Lankinen is currently tops among all active NHL goaltenders for stopping the most Alex Ovechkin shots without allowing a goal. In four career starts against the Washington Capitals, Lankinen has stopped all 16 Ovechkin shots.
The record previously belonged to goaltender Vitek Vanacek. The former Capitals goalie had stopped all of Ovechkin’s shots during his career.
That changed on Thursday.
Ovechkin scored early in the second period to beat Vanacek, which stood as the 924th regular-season goal of his illustrious career.
For good measure, he scored again on Vanacek, less than seven minutes later.
see ovi score again https://t.co/po0sxVNA3z pic.twitter.com/k1sfhEZhUK
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 27, 2026
The 40-year-old would pot an empty-netter in the third period, registering the 34th hat trick of his career.
With the three-goal game, he passed Brett Hull for sole possession of fourth place on the all-time list. Only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Mike Bossy have more career hat tricks than Ovechkin.
Vanacek became the 188th goaltender that Ovechkin has scored on in his 21-year NHL career. There are only 32 goalies that the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorer has never beaten, and only 12 that are active NHL netminders.
The list of active NHL goaltenders who had never allowed a goal on Ovechkin before Thursday night. (Russian Machine Never Breaks)
Three of Lankinen’s four starts against Washington have occurred during his time with the Canucks. He has a 2-0-1 record in those games, which includes a rare home ice win this season. Lankinen stopped 29 of 32 shots during a 4-3 Canucks win at Rogers Arena over Washington on Jan. 21.
The Finnish netminder’s best performance against the Capitals came last season at home, when he stopped 32 of 33 shots in a 2-1 Canucks win. Oveckin had seven shots on Lankinen in that contest.
In his career, Lankinen has a 3-0-1 record against the Capitals with a .930 save percentage.