Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin Deliver Spectacular OT Victory on Historic Milestone Night
Photo credit: Pittsburgh Penguins
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, two of this generation's greatest stars, have long been part of the Penguins, and they both achieved major milestones this evening.
In Wednesday's 6-5 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at PPG Paints Arena, Sidney Crosby scored three points, including the game-winning overtime goal, to reach 1,600 NHL points.
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With a secondary assist on the power-play goal by Bryan Rust, who tapped in a rebound off a shot from Evgeni Malkin, Crosby, who started the game needing one point, reached the milestone at 11:01 of the first period. At 3:26 of the third period, he added a second assist as Malkin scored his 500th goal in his career. At 1:38 of overtime, he finished a back-and-forth game with the winner on a 4-on-3 power play.
Since Jaromir Jagr's assist for the Philadelphia Flyers in a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on October 6, 2011, the 37-year-old Penguins captain is the first NHL player to reach the milestone. Crosby joins Wayne Gretzky (2,857), Jagr (1,921), Mark Messier (1,887), Gordie Howe (1,850), Ron Francis (1,798), Marcel Dionne (1,771), Steve Yzerman (1,755), Mario Lemieux (1,723), and Joe Sakic (1,641) as the tenth skater in NHL history with 1,600 points.
"I think it's just an honor to be part of that group," Crosby said, referring to the 1,600-point club. "To be honest, I don't think about it a whole lot. Hopefully there's a lot of time to reflect after the fact. But it's just a huge honor to be in that group of guys."
In 1,277 games, Crosby has the most points among active players with 1,602 (593 goals, 1,009 assists), ranking 10th in NHL history.
Evgeni Malkin scored for the Pittsburgh Penguins in their 6-5 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday, marking his 500th NHL goal.
Along with longtime teammate and fellow center Sidney Crosby (593), Nashville Predators forward Steven Stamkos (555), and Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin (853), the 38-year-old is the fourth active player to reach the milestone and the 48th player in NHL history to do so.
"First of all, score two goals,» Malkin said Sept. 19, one day after Pittsburgh opened training camp. «Next two games. Not preseason, regular season. My goal all the time [is], like, four points every game. Team wins every game.»
After Crosby and Mario Lemieux (690), Malkin is ranked third on the Penguins' goal list. With 1,307 points (Lemieux, 1,723; Crosby, 1,602) and 807 assists (Lemieux, 1,033; Crosby, 1,009), he is ranked third as well.
«The milestones, those are things that you're always going to remember, you're always going to have,» Crosby, the Penguins captain, said Oct. 5. «It's fun to be part of those. We know how close he is (to 500 goals).»
«My personality, it's like, 'Win every game,'» Malkin said. «It's what I do all my life.»
Crosby and Malkin have won the Stanley Cup three times, the first in 2009 when Geno was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They won back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017.
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