Protas' double gave Washington a third straight win in the NHL championship game

A double by forward Alexei Protas on Friday, December 13, brought the Washington Capitals victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets in the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL).

During the main time the teams played a draw - the score was 1:1 - but in overtime "Washington" took the lead thanks to Belarusian player Alexei Protas. The only goal for Columbus came from defenseman Zach Werenski.

This is the third consecutive win for the Capitals. The team is leading the Eastern Conference with 42 points in 28 games. At the same time, Washington continues to play without its captain - forward Alexander Ovechkin, who is recovering from injury.

"I wish Ovechkin to break Gretzky's record as early as this season."

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Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said on November 19 that Ovechkin is undergoing an examination after the injury. The hockey player's agent Gleb Chistyakov said that the athlete feels normal, but will miss four to six weeks because of the injury.

Ovechkin's injury stopped his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky's record, in the match with "Utah" Ovechkin increased the total number of goals in the regular season to 868 and reduced the gap with the Canadian to 26 goals.

On December 10, it was reported that the NHL plans to stop a game in which forward Ovechkin breaks Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky's record for the most pucks scored in the regular season. A ceremony with the Canadian and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is expected to follow the stoppage of play, even though the meeting will be played on the road. Gretzky himself expressed hope that at the historic match will be able to shake Ovechkin's hand on the occasion of the renewal of the record.