Capitals’ Ovechkin wins Hart, Pearson awards
Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals earned plenty of consolation prizes in a season that produced a first-round playoff exit.
Ovechkin won the Hart Trophy and The Lester B. Pearson Award on Thursday night, honoring his MVP season that produced NHL highs with 65 goals and 112 points.
Ovechkin edged finalists Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins for both honors. The Hart is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, while the Pearson is given out by the NHL Players’ Association.
“I think I’m the happiest 22-year-old guy on the planet,” Ovechkin said. “Everything I’ve got I make myself. I’m working hard and I know it’s improving.”
Ovechkin was the first player to score 60 goals since Mario Lemieux in 1996. He joined Sergei Fedorov (1994) as the only Russian-born players to win the Hart and the Pearson.
Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, hired during the season after Washington’s woeful start, earned the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top bench boss. The only damper on the evening in the nation’s capital came when Nicklas Backstrom was edged by Chicago’s Patrick Kane for rookie of the year.
Boudreau beat out former Spokane Chiefs coach Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings and Guy Carbonneau of the Montreal Canadiens.
Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom completed his second hat trick in Norris Trophy competition when he was named as the league’s top defenseman for the third straight season and sixth overall.
Another familiar winner was New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur, chosen as the NHL’s top goalie for the fourth time in five seasons. Despite not capturing the award for the first time until 2003, his 10th full season, his four Vezina Trophies are second to the six won by Dominik Hasek.
In other awards, Jason Blake of the Toronto Maple Leafs, diagnosed with leukemia just before the start of the regular season, received the Bill Masterton Trophy as the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
Pavel Datsyuk of the Red Wings took the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward.
Miscellany
Woodson offered deal
Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson has been offered a two-year extension, a person close to the negotiations said. Woodson’s record is 106-222. The Hawks’ win total has improved in each of his four years.
•The NCAA will keep the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., through 2035 under an unprecedented 25-year contract extension.
The baseball championship has been in Omaha each year since 1950. The 2008 series begins Saturday. The eight teams in the field are: Georgia, Florida State, Rice, Stanford, North Carolina, LSU, Fresno State and Miami.
•Cat Whitehill, a defender for the U.S. women’s national soccer team, will miss the Olympics after tearing a knee ligament.
Whitehill tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during Tuesday’s practice in Seoul, South Korea, and will have surgery sometime in the next few weeks.