A Grip on Sports: A record is broken, another is taken up a notch and someone will leave San Antonio tonight with a hard-earned trophy

A GRIP ON SPORTS • When life hands you about a dozen lemons, what should you do? Put together a notebook of course. And squeeze every fact you can into the space you have.

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• Alex Ovechkin did something Sunday no one thought possible in 1999. The Washington Capitals’ star scored his 895th goal and broke Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record that had stood for more than a quarter century.

How did the best player Russia ever produced do it? By, in a sense, emulating Hank Aaron.

Gretzky was hockey’s Babe Ruth, a transcendent talent who revolutionized the game. Made it more athletic. Up tempo. Showtime on ice. And scored at a dizzying rate.

One could say Gretzky’s scoring record was built in an era when the NHL was all offense – the NHL’s top 15 years in goals-per-game average all came between 1984 and 1999, the heart of The Great One’s career – but that would ignore the fact his success in Edmonton showed the folks running the league offense attracted fans. And they were smart enough to encourage it.

When Gretzky scored 92 goals in 1981-82 (think Ruth’s 54 home runs in 1920), it triggered a change. Lifted the sport into a renaissance. Boosted attendance, ratings and salaries.

Ovechkin did none of those things, except in Washington D.C. But after joining the Caps some seven years after Gretzky’s retirement, he just went about his business. Scoring goals. At a consistent rate. No off-the-chart numbers – his best year was 65 in 2007-08 – just lots of goals year-after-year. Just like Aaron used to hit home runs.

Sunday, Ovechkin scored No. 895. Set the career mark. Alone. And he won’t stop there. He’ll get over 900. Maybe grind out a couple more years and break into four figures. It’s possible. With Alex Ovechkin, like Wayne Gretzky, anything seems possible.

• Well, not anything. Did you know Ovechkin has 1,619 points in his career? That’s a lot. But it’s still 1,238 fewer than Gretzky. Heck, Gretzky has 344 more assists than Ovechkin has points. Is that good?

No wonder he was called The Great One.

• Speaking of hard-to-fathom numbers, Connecticut’s 82-59 win over South Carolina on Sunday lifted the Huskies (and coach Geno Auriemma) to their 12th NCAA Division I women’s basketball title. The first came in 1995, 10 more between 2000 and 2006, and then Sunday’s rout of the Gamecocks.

Second on the list of most titles? Pat Summitt’s Tennessee teams that won eight between 1987 and 2008.

After that the magic number seems to be three. Baylor, Stanford and South Carolina have a trio of titles.

• Houston would win its first NCAA men’s title tonight if Kelvin Sampson’s team can get past Florida. The Gators? They would have three.

UCLA, of course, sits atop the men’s list with its 11. Kentucky is next with eight, UConn and North Carolina have six, Duke and Indiana five each. Kansas is next with four, with Florida trying to join Villanova with three.

If the Gators win tonight (5:50, CBS) a record will be set, though it’s not one anyone wants. Houston already has it, having appeared in six Final Fours without winning a championship. In this case, seven would be a truly unlucky number.

• Let’s quickly recount just how well the Mariners have started the season.

The offense is clutch-less once again, among the worst in baseball hitting with runners in scoring position. It’s a big part of why the team is 3-7, last in the American League West.

One of their young aces, George Kirby, was shut down for shoulder soreness late in spring training. Nothing too serious, it was said. He’s still out and there has been little in the way of an update.

And, in the irony of ironies, rightfielder (and lead-off hitter) Victor Robles made quite-possibly the best catch you’ve ever witnessed – it certainly impressed the home team – in San Francisco yesterday. And probably broke something in his left arm while doing it. He will be out a while.

The M’s lost 5-4 minutes after he was carted off the field.  

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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, one other piece of news we wanted to write about today and couldn’t squeeze in? The House settlement may (or more than likely, may not) be approved today. We have a few stories to pass along. … We linked this column about Houston and Duke yesterday when it ran in the Washington Post. It is on the S-R site today. … In more important news, we give you this John Canzano column. … Washington has reportedly secured the services of the Atlantic Sun Conference’s player of the year. … Oregon has secured another year from its point guard. … In the women’s game, we can pass along some more coverage of UConn’s win, a victory that caps Paige Bueckers’ career. … In football news, Frank Reich’s former players think he’ll fit in well at Stanford. … Arizona’s players are fighting for their spots this spring. … Finally, 11th-ranked Oregon State defeated No. 12 UC Irvine 7-4 yesterday to win the three-game series between two of the best West Coast baseball teams 2-1. 

Indians: Spokane was in danger of leaving its season-opening series with visiting Everett without a win. As Dave Nichols tells us, the Indians didn’t let that happen, winning 3-1 on a sun-drenched day at Avista Stadium. … It seems like only last week Chase Dollander was dominating the Northwest League for the Indians. It wasn’t. But yesterday he threw five good-enough innings for the Rockies and picked up his first MLB victory.  

Preps: When Tyson Degenhart was in seventh grade, you could see he had something special. By the time he graduated from Mt. Spokane High, you were sure of it. And now that he’s leaving Boise State as the school’s career scoring leader, you can etch it in stone.

Mariners: Is Oracle Park’s rightfield corner safe for players like Robles? There has been some discussion. … Jorge Polanco was out again yesterday. Is playing third base too much for his body? … The Giants are 8-1 to start the season and lead the N.L. West.

Seahawks: What does best-available player mean to the Hawks in this draft?

Kraken: If you’re wondering, we linked all the Ovechkin stories in the column above.

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• The first NHL game I ever saw in person came in the early 1970s. The Forum. Kings and New York Rangers. Not much of a game, not great seats. Underwhelming, actually. The only other game I ever saw in person? Feb. 24, 1981 (I looked it up). Edmonton in town. Mark Messier. Paul Coffey. And Gretzky. A friend had even worse seats. But, wow, was the game better. Faster. Exciting. Mesmerizing. Until later …