Capitals local legend's call of Alex Ovechkin’s OT goal is pure playoff magic

A fairytale season somehow got even better for Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. The Eastern Conference-leading Capitals won their first playoff game of the year dramatically with Ovechkin netting the overtime winner in front of a packed Capital One Arena.

As if Ovechkin scoring his first-ever playoff overtime goal wasn't electric enough, the call from Joe Beninati on the Monumental Sports Network made the moment that much more special.

You can hear the passion in his voice when Ovechkin scored, and once he realized it was Ovechkin, he immediately had the statistic that every Capitals fan wanted to hear ready. This was, indeed, Ovechkin's first-ever playoff overtime goal, somehow.

Joe Beninati's call of Alex Ovechkin's game winner captures magnitude of epic moment perfectly

Ovechkin's 897 regular-season goals are more than any other player to lace up the skates in NHL history. The 39-year-old has had tons of playoff success as well, with 72 goals on the big stage entering Monday's action. He scored earlier in the contest, and wound up burying the overtime winner for his second of the night. Somehow, he went 73 goals without scoring a single one in overtime, but the 74th time proved to be the charm.

That first-ever overtime goal did not come easily for Ovechkin. The Capitals won a face-off in Montreal's zone setting up a shot attempt from Anthony Beauvillier, which was stopped by Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault. Ovechkin wound up cleaning up the rebound and securing the win for Washington. It wasn't the usual slapshot from the left dot from Ovechkin this time. The 39-year-old got right in front of the crease and scored one of the biggest goals of his illustrious career.

Beninati made sure to highlight Ovechkin's historic feat and then let the boisterous crowd do the rest of the talking. It truly was an awesome call.

To put it plainly, this was a game that Washington had to have. They led 2-0 after two periods on home ice against a Canadiens team that lacks playoff experience and was the last Eastern Conference team to punch its postseason ticket. They let it get away from them in the third period, but the best goal scorer in NHL history, of course, was there to save them in overtime. The end result is all that matters, at the end of the day.

Ovechkin hopes many more of these electrifying moments are to come in what could very well be a deep Washington playoff run.