Ovechkin nets another milestone

Alex Ovechkin reached 30 goals in a season for the 19th time in his 20-year NHL career, adding to the league record he set last season with his 18th. The Capitals captain got his latest milestone goal Tuesday at home during the team’s 3-1 win against the Flames. He beat Dan Vladar with a one-timer on the power play 4:52 into the third period, sending the crowd into chants of “Ovi! Ovi!” Ovechkin joined Teemu Selanne, Johnny Bucyk and Gordie Howe (who did it three times) as the only players in hockey history to score 30-plus goals in a season at age 39 or older. “My linemates, teammates do a pretty good job finding me out there and I just have to finish it up,” Ovechkin said. Scoring his 883rd career goal also puts Ovechkin 12 back of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s mark of 894 that had long seemed unapproachable. Ovechkin is now on pace to pass Gretzky in early April long before the regular season is over. “He’s obviously doing such special things,” said Flames’ Matt Coronato. “Obviously when you’re competing against him, you don’t want to see it but definitely cool to watch all season long.”

Carter says he’s ‘best’ player in draft

Former Penn State star Abdul Carter made one thing clear Wednesday: He should be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft. Carter was in the first group of players to speak with reporters at the NFL’s annual scouting combine in Indianapolis, and he wasted no time declaring himself the top player in the 2025 draft class. “I feel like I’m the best player in the country and the best player should be picked first,” he said. “It’s the work I put in with my dad, who trained me, and all the sacrifices I made, I know I’m the best.” Carter certainly has a case after finishing last season with 68 tackles, a Football Bowl Subdivision-leading 23 1/2 tackles for loss and 12 sacks to finish seventh nationally. He was the Big Ten’s top defensive player in 2024 and finished his three-year career with 39 1/2 tackles for loss, 23 sacks and 14 passes defensed. The question is whether the 6-foot-3, 259-pound Carter is a better fit at defensive end or outside linebacker. Either way, he’s likely to be the first or second defensive player selected April 24 in Green Bay.

Honor for former US Open champ

Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland was honored Wednesday with the PGA Tour Courage Award as he comes back from brain surgery to remove a lesion that was causing him to have unfounded thoughts that he was dying. Woodland, who won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2019 to go along with three other PGA Tour titles in his career, had a hole the size of a baseball removed from his head so doctors could remove the lesion in a September 2023 surgery. He returned last year and continues to make strides toward restoring his game and his life at home with wife Gabby and his three children. “This is a testament to the people around me because there’s no way, one, I’d be back playing or ... sitting here today if it wasn’t for them,” Woodland said at PGA National in south Florida, where he’s playing the Cognizant Classic. “It means everything for me to receive it, but it really belongs to the people around me.” The Courage Award is presented to a person who overcomes extraordinary adversity to make a significant and meaningful contribution to golf. —AP