Crosby 49 and counting as Penguins win easily
Sidney Crosby took the NHL lead with his 49th goal - losing his
50th on a post-game review - and became the third-youngest player
in NHL history to reach the 500-point mark, leading the Pittsburgh
Penguins to a 7-3 rout of the New York Islanders on Thursday in the
final regular-season game in Mellon Arena.
On a night the Penguins brought back more than 50 of their
former players, coaches and executives to mark the end of the arena
they have played in since 1967, Crosby made certain there were a
few more highlights before the building known as the Igloo shuts
down.
This wasn't the final Penguins game there - the playoffs
await the Stanley Cup champions - but it was one of the last in a
building constructed six years before Pittsburgh was awarded an NHL
expansion franchise.
The Penguins have 99 points with two games remaining, the
same as second-place New Jersey in the Eastern Conference, although
the Devils own the tiebreaker. The Devils lost 3-2 to Florida.
Pittsburgh plays Saturday at Atlanta and Sunday at the Islanders,
while the Devils are at home Saturday against the Islanders and
Sunday against the third-place Sabres.
Crosby finished with four points, also assisting on a goal by
Alex Goligoski and two by Bill Guerin, giving him 103 points for
the season and 502 in his five-season career. The only players
younger than Crosby (22 years, 244 days) to hit the 500-point mark
faster were Wayne Gretzky (21 years, 52 days) and former Penguins
star Mario Lemieux (22 years, 172 days).
Alex Ovechkin of Washington and Steven Stamkos of Tampa Bay
have 48 goals each.
Crosby put the Penguins up 4-2 with a wrist shot from the
right circle with 58 seconds left in a first period that led the
Islanders to replace goalie Martin Biron with Dwayne Roloson. Biron
gave up four goals on 10 shots.
The Penguins, coming off three consecutive sub-par
performances in which they lost to Tampa Bay and Washington and
beat Atlanta in overtime, added two more goals in the second by
Tyler Kennedy and Guerin.
Crosby appeared to reach the 50-goal mark on a slap shot from
the right point during a Penguins power play at 14:34 of the
second. The Penguins delayed announcing the goal until play was
stopped so Crosby could receive a louder ovation - and, in the
interim, Kennedy scored 1:07 later to make it 6-3.
However, the goal was credited instead to Guerin following a
lengthy post-game video review, meaning Crosby must try for his
50th this weekend.
Crosby did get his 500th career point on the play, an assist.
Evgeni Malkin, returning after missing six of the previous
seven games with a bruised right foot and an undisclosed illness,
scored unassisted on a breakaway after intercepting a pass, putting
Pittsburgh up 3-1 late in the first.
The Islanders, improved this season but still not
playoff-ready, had won three in a row and five of six, but were
fighting both history and a revved-up Penguins team looking to
build momentum before the playoffs. Unlike last season, when they
were 18-3-4 from mid-February on, the Penguins had lost five of
eight and 12 of 22.
During the 20-minute pregame ceremony, Lemieux got the
loudest ovation - of course - of all the former players, putting on
his No. 66 jersey for one of the few times since his 2006
retirement. Among the other former players taking part in a
pre-game ceremony in which each player walked onto the ice lit by
spotlight were original Penguins Andy Bathgate and Les Binkley,
former 50-goal scorer Pierre Larouche and Hall of Famers Bryan
Trottier and Paul Coffey.
The team's first coach, Red Sullivan, and general manager,
Jack Riley, also attended - Riley, at age 90, rarely misses a game
to this day.
NOTES: Pittsburgh scored the opening goal - by Brooks Orpik
with 23 seconds gone - for the first time in nine games. ...
Pittsburgh is 10-1-1 in its last 12 against the Islanders. ...
Biron is 4-9-2 against Pittsburgh. ... Penguins G Marc-Andre Fleury
has won his last six starts at home against the Islanders. He made
three stops in three seconds during a short-handed flurry in front
of the net during the second period. ... Malkin has six goals
against the Islanders this season.
