Crosby gets 1,700th point in Penguins win against Blues

Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists to surpass 1,700 NHL points for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 6-3 win against the St. Louis Blues at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Monday.

Crosby (1,701 points; 632 goals, 1,069 assists) is the ninth player in League history to hit the milestone, joining Wayne Gretzky (2,857), Jaromir Jagr (1,921), Mark Messier (1,887), Gordie Howe (1,850), Ron Francis (1,798), Marcel Dionne (1,771), Steve Yzerman (1,755) and Mario Lemieux (1,723). He is second in Penguins' history behind Lemieux, who ranks eighth all-time with 690 goals and 1,033 assists.

The 38-year-old Pittsburgh captain got to 1,700 points in 1,362 games, the fourth-fastest in NHL history behind Gretzky (711), Lemieux (887) and Dionne (1,257).

“Joining that company, those are players I grew up idolizing, I didn’t ever think I’d be with them or near them," Crosby said. "It’s something I’m grateful for, that I’ve been able to play this long and be part of that group.”

Bryan Rust had two goals and an assist, Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, and Erik Karlsson had three assists for the Penguins (7-2-1), who are 5-0-1 in their past six games. Tristan Jarry made 26 saves.

Nick Bjugstad had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Kyrou and Mathieu Joseph scored for the Blues (3-5-1), who have lost four straight (0-3-1). Joel Hofer made 20 saves.

“We didn’t push well enough to be able to take the lead and have them chase the game,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “Great thing about sports is, especially in our league, you get to respond real quick. We didn’t have a good enough effort tonight.”

After the Blues scored two straight goals to tie it, Crosby set up Parker Wotherspoon with a cross-ice pass for a snap shot during a delayed penalty that put Pittsburgh back on top 3-2 at 6:37 of the second period.

Rust then deflected a point shot from Karlsson to extend the lead to 4-2 just 42 seconds into the third period. Crosby had the secondary assist on the goal for his 1,700th point.

“To be part of I don’t know how many (of Crosby’s points), obviously not all of them, but to be part of some of them has been really cool,” Rust said. “And to get the goal on 1,700 is really cool and something I’m going to remember.”

Joseph cut it to 4-3 at 4:35 with a snap shot from the left circle on a 2-on-1.

Crosby reponded to make it 5-3 at 16:39, following his own rebound on a breakaway with a wrist shot.

Malkin scored an empty-net goal at 16:59 for the 6-3 final.

Pittsburgh scored on each of the first two shots of the game just 16 seconds apart. Rust opened the scoring for the Penguins by taking a backhand pass from Karlsson and burying a snap shot from the right face-off circle 39 seconds into the first period.

Anthony Mantha then made it 2-0 at 55 seconds, finishing a pass from Malkin at the right post.

“Poor start,” Montgomery said. “Made a couple mistakes in the first two minutes. Their top two lines made us pay.”

Bjugstad chipped in a pass from Nathan Walker to cut it to 2-1 at 4:15.

Kyrou tied it 2-2 at 15:43 with a wrist shot that was set up by Brayden Schenn on a rush. He extended his point streak to seven games (three goals, four assists).

“You get a lead early on, sometimes you can see it start to get away,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “Maybe it’s going to come easy tonight. You can’t think that way. Not saying that was the case tonight, I just think we put ourselves in some bad situations. ... But I think as an overall assessment, I think our second and third periods were the direction of where we want to be going and the way we want to be playing.”

Earlier in the game, the Penguins confirmed that an adult male fell from the upper concourse to the lower bowl at PPG Paints Arena. The individual was immediately attended to by Pittsburgh EMS as well as PPG Paints Arena personnel and was then transported to a local hospital.

"Just wanted to start with saying, right after the game, I was informed and the team was informed there that a fan fell from the upper bowl to the lower bowl, that he was taken to the hospital," Muse said. "Just wanted to start off by saying our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. Obviously, they all come here for a sport and a game. You hear something like that and it kind of puts everything else aside. So, again, thoughts and prayers are with his family."

NOTES: Crosby (1,902 total points; 703 goals, 1,199 assists) is the seventh player in NHL history with at least 1,900 points in the regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs. He recorded his 498th multipoint game, passing Lemieux (497) for the most with the Penguins. That number trails only Gordie Howe (505 with the Detroit Red Wings) for the most with a single franchise. ... Pittsburgh is off to its best 10-game start since 2016-17, when it also opened 7-2-1. ... Blues forwards Robert Thomas (upper body) and Jake Neighbours (lower body) did not play. Each is day to day. ... St. Louis forward Alexey Toropchenko had three shots on goal in 10:34 of ice time in his return after missing seven games because of upper- and lower-body injuries.