NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Ovechkin fired just about the perfect shot from the place on the ice that has defined his remarkable career. When the puck hit the net, it made him the top goal scorer in NHL history.

Ovechkin scored his 895th career goal in the Washington Capitals’ game Sunday against the New York Islanders, beating fellow Russian Ilya Sorokin on a power play with 12:34 left in the second period. He took a cross-ice pass from longtime teammate Tom Wilson and fired a laser past Sorokin with defenseman Jakob Chychrun screening.

Capitals coach Spencer Carbery called it “the ultimate goal-scorer’s goal for the greatest of all time.”

With the excitement of a child, the 39-year-old belly flopped onto the ice as tens of thousands of fans around him cheered and chanted, “Ovi! Ovi!” while teammates streamed off the bench, mobbing him in celebration.

“I’m probably gonna need a couple more days or maybe a couple weeks to realize what does it mean to be No. 1,” Ovechkin said after a 4-1 loss that was still a party for the Capitals.

“I’m really proud for myself. I’m really proud for my family, for all my teammates that help me to reach that milestone and for all my coaches. It’s huge. It’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable moment, and I’m happy.”

Ovechkin had never scored on Sorokin before, making his countryman the 183rd different goaltender he has beaten. “Thank you to Sorokin to let me score 895,” Ovechkin said. “I love you, brother.” Ovechkin asked him for the stick, and Sorokin obliged after writing “895!” and signing it.

That any player got to 895 goals, breaking a record that stood for 31 years, seemed unreal to those in the middle of it.

“It’s truly incredible,” said center Dylan Strome, who got the secondary assist for passing the puck to Wilson. “Sometimes those moments happen where you’ve kind of got to pinch yourself to believe that you’re really in this moment and really on the ice celebrating or a part of it, and it was awesome.”

Ovechkin broke a record that appeared to be one of the most untouchable in sports. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made sure to point that out when he opened the 10-minute ceremony to celebrate the milestone.

“Wayne, you’ll always be the ‘Great One’ and you had a record that nobody ever thought would be broken,” Bettman said. “But Alex, you did it.”

The first to get hugs from Ovechkin were longtime equipment managers Craig “Woody” Leydig and Brock Myles, along with the rest of the training and locker room staff who have been around him so long. Ovechkin waved to acknowledge the crowd and went through a handshake line with the Islanders as crew members set up for the 895 ceremony that has been months in the making.

Ovechkin got a portrait of himself and Gretzky. Janet Gretzky presented a gift to Ovechkin’s wife, Nastya, just as Colleen Howe did to her when her husband broke Gordie’s record back in 1994. Ovechkin got No. 895 in his 1,487th game — the same number Gretzky finished with.

Gretzky shook Ovechkin’s hand, embraced him and congratulated the “Great 8” and his family for the accomplishment.

“They say records are made to be broken, but I’m not sure who’s going to get more goals than that,” Gretzky said.

Ovechkin took the microphone from Gretzky like a torch being passed from one legend of the game to another. He thanked injured teammates Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2018, and expressed his affection for his wife, mother and two sons standing nearby.

“We did it, boys. We did it,” Ovechkin said. “And the most important thing, to my mom, my family, my beautiful wife, my father-in-law, my beautiful kids, thank you. I love you so much, and without you, without your support I would never stand here.”

More “Ovi!” chants followed. Plenty more will be coming as he attempts to reach 900.

Gretzky’s total of 894 goals had long seemed unapproachable. Ovechkin passed it even after missing 16 games in November and December because of a broken left leg, a testament to his durability and a knack for putting the puck in the net consistently for two decades. He surpassed 40 goals this season for a 14th time — two more than Gretzky and also the most in league history — and now has 42.

“To do what he’s doing at this age is incredible,” said longtime teammate John Carlson, who assisted on tying goal No. 894. “I think people are sleeping on that, too. Just, like, he missed two months and he might score 50 goals. Like that’s nuts. It’s crazy.”

The chase by the Great 8, a nickname honoring his jersey number, captured attention from North America to Ovechkin’s native Russia, where billboards and goal counters cheered on and tracked his effort. It helped Ovechkin that his team is one of the best in the NHL this season, defying expectations.

Gretzky broke Howe’s record a little over 31 years ago, since he scored 802 on March 23, 1994. He added 92 more before retiring in 1999 after a total of 1,487 games over 20 seasons.

Even with this one falling to Ovechkin, Gretzky holds 54 NHL records, and two seem truly untouchable: 2,857 total points and 1,963 assists, the latter of which is more than anyone else has in goals and assists combined.

For NHL playoff goals, which do not count toward the record, Gretzky has the most (122). Ovechkin has 72. Gretzky also had another 56 in the World Hockey Association regular season and playoffs, while Ovechkin has 57 from his time in the KHL, Russia’s top league.

Returning to Russia to play in front of family and friends is an option at some point for Ovechkin, who has one season left after this one on the five-year, $47.5 million contract he signed in 2021, which took him through age 40 to give him enough time to chase Gretzky’s record. Instead, he got it done earlier than just about anyone could have realistically expected.

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TAMPA, Fla. — UConn is back on top of women’s basketball, winning its 12th national championship by routing defending champion South Carolina 82-59 on Sunday behind Azzi Fudd’s 24 points.

Sarah Strong added 24 points and 15 rebounds, and Paige Bueckers scored 17 points in her final game at UConn (37-3).

“Well, it’s amazing to have three players, three people like that on the same team,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “And Sarah, you would think Sarah was graduating the way she plays, right? All three of them complement each other so well. They all have such unique skill sets.”

Bueckers capped her stellar career with the Huskies’ first championship since 2016, ending a nine-year drought for the team. That was the longest period for Auriemma and his program without a title since Rebecca Lobo and Jen Rizzotti led the Huskies to their first championship in 1995.

Since then the Huskies have had dominant championship runs, including in the early 2000s led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, 2009-10 with Maya Moore and finally the four straight from 2013-16 with Breanna Stewart. All were in attendance in Florida on Sunday to see the Huskies’ latest title.

“You just never know if you’ll ever be back in this situation again,” Auriemma said. “And there were so many times when I think we all questioned, ‘Have we been here too long? Has it been time?’ And we kept hanging in there and hanging in there and that’s because these players make me want to hang in there every day.”

Bueckers, the expected No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft on April 14, delivered for the Huskies throughout their championship season.

It was the only thing missing from an incredible UConn career that was slowed by injuries. She was the first freshman to win AP Player of the Year before missing a lot of her sophomore season with a tibial plateau fracture and meniscus tear. She then tore an ACL before the next season.

UConn closed the first half up 10 points and then put the game away in the third quarter behind Fudd, Strong and Bueckers. The trio combined for 23 of the team’s 26 points in the quarter. UConn was up 50-39 with 3:21 left in the period before closing with a 12-3 run.

Fudd, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, and Strong got it started with back-to-back 3s, and the rout was on. Auriemma subbed Bueckers, Fudd and Strong out with 1:32 left in the game. Bueckers and Auriemma had a long hug on the sideline, having finally gotten that championship that he so wanted for her.

“They’ve all been gratifying, don’t get me wrong. But this one here, because of the way it came about and what’s been involved, it’s been a long time since I’ve been that emotional when a player has walked off the court,” Auriemma said.

Dawn Staley’s team was trying for a third title in four years and fourth overall. It would have tied her with Kim Mulkey for third most behind Auriemma and former Tennessee Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt, who had eight.

“Our kids gave it all they had. When you can understand why you lost and when you’ve been on the other side of that three times, you understand it,” Staley said. “You can swallow it. We lost to a very good basketball team.”

UConn had reached the title game only once during its drought since 2016. The Huskies had been eliminated by heartbreaking last-second losses in the Final Four on buzzer-beaters. The Huskies’ last title game appearance came in 2022 when Staley’s team beat UConn to start the Gamecocks’ current run of success, a game that ended Auriemma’s perfect record in title games.

There seemed to be no nerves early for either team as the game got off to a fast start. The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes before the defenses started to clamp down. The Huskies led 19-14 after one quarter and then extended the advantage to 36-26 at the half. Fudd had 13 points and Strong added eight points and 11 rebounds.

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Yordan Alvarez got a pitch to his liking and unleashed all the might of the 6-foot-4, 240-pound designated hitter behind the swing. It was a high fastball from Griffin Jax, right at the top of the zone, and it quickly disappeared into the second deck in right-center field.

Alvarez’s ninth-inning home run completed Houston’s comeback. Once trailing by six runs, the Astros marched all the way back back to knot the game, then scored another pair of runs in the 10th to oust the Twins 9-7 on Sunday afternoon in the series finale at Target Field.

Jose Altuve’s RBI single in the 10th gave the Astros, who added an insurance run later in the inning, their first lead since the first inning.

Things could have unraveled completely for the Twins in that first inning, but Twins starter Chris Paddack locked in after giving up three hits in the frame, surrendering only the one run. Then the Twins surged ahead in the bottom of the frame, scoring three runs, one on a Trevor Larnach sacrifice fly and then next two on a Ryan Jeffers double off the wall.

The Twins kept building on that lead, adding one run in the second and three more in the fourth, an inning started by Matt Wallner, who collected four hits in the loss. But the Twins’ offense, up six, did not score after the fourth inning. And in the fifth, Houston began its climb back.

Paddack found trouble yet again in a fifth frame that began with a walk, double and a Willi Castro throwing error, a play on which a run scored. Paddack departed with the bases loaded, making way for Cole Sands, who did his part to minimize the damage. But, all told, three runs scored.

Houston scored again in the sixth to pull within two, an inning that could have been much worse had Harrison Bader’s diving catch on a Alvarez liner to left field not saved a run, or potentially even two.

And that’s where things stood until the ninth. The Twins put two runners aboard in the eighth inning, but weren’t able to do any damage.

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Losing steam as the regular season winds down, the Wild cowboyed up when they needed to on Sunday.

After losing a one-goal lead late in the third period, Marco Rossi deflected a feed from Mats Zuccarello past Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger on a 4-on-3 man advantage in overtime to beat the Stars, 3-2, at Xcel Energy Center.

Matt Boldy and Marcus Foligno scored third-period goals, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots as the Wild earned two points for the first time since their 4-2 victory over Washington on March 27.

The win helped solidify the Wild’s hold on the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, giving them a six point advantage, 91-85, on idle Calgary, which has two games in hand on Minnesota and will finish with the NHL’s last regular-game April 17 at Los Angeles against a Kings team that already has clinched a playoff spot.

Boldy had a hand in all three goals, finishing with a goal and two assists. He even drew the penalty five seconds into overtime, a tripping call on top winger Jason Robertson. Foligno had a strong game, as well, making some strong plays as the Wild finished off a penalty kill late to send the game into overtime.

Robertson gave the Stars 1-0 lead with a snipe from outside the left circle just under 6 minutes into the first period, but both Gustavsson and Jake Oettinger were stout for the next 40 minutes, and the Stars retained their lead until early in the third period.

That changed when Boldy, active on a long forecheck, one-timed a rebound while falling between the circles to beat Oettinger to the left corner just 3:08 into the final frame. Less than 2 minutes later, Foligno crashed the net, corralled his own rebound and poked the puck past Oettinger for a 2-1 lead at 5:00.

But Dallas bounced back to tie it late in regulation when defenseman Thomas Harley wristed a shot through the circles from the point and it redirected past Gustavsson off the shin pad of defenseman Zach Bogosian to make it 2-2 at 13:05.

It was a huge win for the Wild, who take a softer cushion west for three road games starting Wednesday at San Jose. Minnesota has back-to-backs at Calgary and Vancouver on Friday and Saturday before returning home for the regular-season finale against Anaheim on April 15.

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