Joe Beninati has made a living talking about hockey for more than 40 years as a sportscaster.

On Sunday in Long Island, New York, where the Washington Capitals visited the New York Islanders, the Bowdoin College graduate became a part of history.

When Washington star Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th career goal to surpass Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer, breaking what had long been considered one of sports’ untouchable records, Beninati captured the historic moment.

“(Dylan) Strome criss-crossing with (Jakob) Chychrun through center, sending (Tom) Wilson on the flank, cross-ice Ovechkin, fires, SCOREEEEEEEEE!

“The chasing days are done! Alex Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer in the history of the NHL.”

For the next 37 seconds, Beninati and longtime broadcast partner Craig Laughlin stood by as the raucous cheers and “Ovi” chants rained down from the UBS Arena stands onto the ice. The two had been together in the booth for hundreds of Ovechkin’s goals, including his first.

“I don’t want to be trampling on these moments,” Beninati said. “I want to hit them right on the button. I want to be right on time with them. Then it’s this rush of adrenaline that’s coursed through me with just about every goal I’ve ever called, but especially his, and then tag it properly. Find some entertainment value in it, and then shut up. Let the world adore him. Let the cameras follow him. How is our director going to make that line cut to go through the upset goalie, the overjoyed Ovechkin, the bench mobbing each other and coming onto the ice, the ownership group, Alex’s family? There’s no words that are necessary for that, just drink that all in.”

The call has been praised online as the Capitals and Monumental Sports Network released a video from the booth overlayed with the telecast footage. Beninati nearly yells the microphone off the headset, as Laughlin jumps out of his seat. The play-by-play announcer pumps his fist in the air and mouths what everyone watching is thinking, “Wow.” The duo start clapping with the crowd before the color analyst describes the moment.

“I came to the NHL in 1994. I still religiously watch games that I do with every intention on being my best and getting better,” Beninati said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “So I will spend some time with those two telecasts. I have a really good feeling about them. I’ve received tons of very good feedback.”

Beninati arrived at Bowdoin in 1983 with the hopes of becoming a surgeon and playing goalie for the men’s hockey team, but he ended up playing on the junior varsity club behind two freshmen goaltenders.

That winter, a couple friends asked Beninati if he would be interested in helping call the varsity games for WBOR 91.1 FM, the Bowdoin student radio station.

“I did one or two, and Casco Bay Cable TV, I don’t know if it still exists, they heard me on the radio,” Beninati recalled. “(They said,) ‘Hey, you’re pretty good. You want to do these games on television?’ Sir, I’m not even 18 yet. ‘Well, that doesn’t matter.’”

The college freshman continued calling home games and some road games on the radio and started calling high school football, basketball and hockey games as well. His one year of JV hockey became four years in goal for the varsity lacrosse team. He did public address announcing in Dayton Arena and worked with the sports information office. Pretty soon, Beninati began tweaking his career plans.

“Hey, Mom, Dad, I don’t know about medical school. I think I want to be a sports announcer,” he recalled saying to his parents.

After graduating in 1987, Beninati became the sports information director at his alma mater, where he also set the Bowdoin lacrosse single-season saves record at 263, a mark that stood for 35 years. He began calling games for the Maine Mariners after subbing in for a friend, and then called games for the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1994.

Although Beninati has covered Ovechkin’s career since his arrival in the National Hockey League in 2005, the opportunity to call goal No. 895 wasn’t always a given.

With four of the final six games on Washington’s schedule set to be broadcast nationally, there was a possibility the longtime voice of the Capitals would have to sit out the landmark game. In mid-March, Monumental Sports Network announced a partnership with the NHL that allowed the regional network to produce its own broadcasts during the four nationally televised games for archival purposes.

So while Kenny Albert, longtime radio voice of the New York Rangers, took the national call for TNT, Beninati and Laughlin called the game for the regional network.

“The hockey gods smiled, and these two dates, Friday against Chicago (when Ovechkin scored goals No. 893 and 894) and Sunday against the Islanders, were on Monumental, live,” Beninati said. “And for me, it was all about sharing it with Craig Laughlin, the analyst in the booth, our studio crew back in DC, our producers, directors, photographers, all the graphics people, all the audio people…

“These men and women have all been covering and cataloging Alex’s every move for 20 years. There’s so much continuity in our group, and I wanted desperately for that major moment, that major milestone, to happen on our air live, so that all of us could have a slight role in it. And you’re talking about me being the soundtrack to it? It’s incredible.”