Islanders’ Marc Gatcomb on scoring two goals in Alex Ovechkin’s record-breaking game: ‘It’s something I would have never dreamed of’

Alex Ovechkin made hockey history this spring when he broke the all-time NHL goals record against, but he wasn’t the highest scorer in the milestone game. That honor went to New York Islanders rookie Marc Gatcomb, a fourth-line winger playing just his 33rd game in the league. Gatcomb scored a pair of goals in that game, bookending Ovechkin’s record-breaking tally — a feat that would make him the hero of nearly any other contest.

A longtime minor-leaguer who made his NHL debut in January, Gatcomb’s trajectory has had little in common with Ovechkin’s. He scored nine points (8g, 1a) in 38 games for New York last season, with the only multi-point game of his career coming on that fateful day against the Capitals. But now, he’s become a small part of hockey history.

“It was definitely something I’ll always remember for the rest of my life,” he said at the NHLPA Rookie Showcase on Wednesday. “It’s a record that a lot of people thought wasn’t achievable, and he did it.

“But just to be part of that game is pretty special. It was pretty cool seeing him break the record. I’ve never heard a rink so loud in my life. And when he scored, seeing him dive across the ice was pretty cool.”

Months later, Gatcomb still struggled to explain what that moment meant to him. Just making the NHL had once seemed out of his reach: he was a junior in college before his coach suggested he could have an NHL future. If you’d told him he’d one day witness Ovechkin break the all-time record — let alone outscore him in that game — he’d have assumed you were joking.

“I probably would have laughed when I was 20,” he said. “It’s something I would have never dreamed of. And to put it into words is kind of hard, because it’s just a pretty cool moment for hockey and myself, personally.”

Gatcomb, like so many of the players on the ice for that game, held onto a souvenir of the milestone. His wasn’t particularly flashy — several copies of the score sheet — and he hadn’t gotten it signed, but it showed his name and Ovechkin’s side by side.

“I grabbed a couple score sheets,” he said. “To see my name on there is pretty cool.”

Gatcomb’s multi-goal game against the Capitals didn’t make much of a splash: the Islanders were already seven points out of a playoff spot beforehand, and the final score mattered little compared to Ovechkin reaching the summit. Still, Gatcomb’s name will live on as a piece of trivia for hockey fans, and his performance will live on as a highlight in his memory.