With high drama, Malkin’s 500th goal was unforgettable

Evgeni Malkin couldn’t have asked for a much better 500th career goal.

Or a crazier game for it to happen in.

Without a doubt, the Penguins’ 6-5 overtime victory against the Buffalo Sabres at PPG Paints Arena, highlighted by Malkin’s big milestone, won’t soon be forgotten.

“I don’t want to lose this game tonight,” Malkin said afterwards. “It’s worse when you score and you celebrate, the fans probably are celebrating, but we lost. Crazy game. I’m glad we won (and got) two points. The score in overtime — finally. We deserved two points.”

Over the course of his 19year NHL career, Malkin has had a knack for producing exotic goals.

Whether by accelerating through the neutral zone and slicing through defensemen to score, ripping off-balance backhanders or flexing his powerful slap shot, Malkin has produced no shortage of highlight-reel scores.

Stylistically, goal No. 500 for Malkin will assume a prominent place among his best.

With 16 minutes, 34 seconds left in regulation, Malkin scored past Buffalo’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen while sprawled out on his back, having successfully tapped in his own rebound.

Fittingly, the lone assist on Malkin’s score was collected by longtime teammate Sidney Crosby.

“I’ll have a great memory of that,” Crosby said. “I had a front row seat watching him do it. Just really happy for him. I know how hard it is to get to that number and how long and how well he’s been doing it for. That’s a great achievement. I’m proud of him.”

Malkin becomes the 48th player in NHL history to score 500 goals and the third member of the Penguins franchise to do so, along with Crosby and Mario Lemieux.

The Magnitogorsk, Russia, native also becomes only the second Russian player to reach that plateau, joining Alexander Ovechkin.

The sequence that led to Malkin’s score was vintage Crosby.

Battling Sabres blueliner Mattias Samuelsson behind the net, Crosby, back turned to Malkin, flipped an accurate pass to his teammate as Malkin cut towards the net for a shot on goal.

Falling down after his initial shot, which Luukkonen stopped, Malkin slid across the edge of the crease, where fortuitously, the loose puck found his stick.

Sliding on the ice on his back, Malkin managed to whack the puck in.

That Crosby notched the only assist on Malkin’s 500th career goal was yet another memorable moment for the two teammates who have brought three Stanley Cup championships to Pittsburgh since first taking the ice together in 2006-07.

In February of 2022, when Crosby scored his own goal No. 500, it was Malkin who set him up on the power play.

As Malkin closed in on 500, Crosby hoped to be the one to lend a hand.

“I wanted to find a way and sometimes, it doesn’t work out that way,” Crosby said. “Obviously, we don’t play together on a line that often. But I was hoping I’d have an opportunity to try to find him and it worked out.

“He set me up so nice there for my 500th. I was hoping I could return the favor. His was a little more work than mine. Just a beautiful goal. Huge goal for us too in the game.”

Malkin’s goal was the 140th that Crosby assisted on, by far the most of any of Malkin’s teammates over the years.

It also gave the Penguins, who navigated through a rough start that saw starting goaltender Tristan Jarry yanked in favor of Joel Blomqvist up a 4-3 lead in the third period.

The go-ahead score, with its implications for the game, in addition to being a massive milestone for Malkin, brought the entire Penguins bench onto the ice to celebrate.

“I thought Geno’s goal and Sid being a part of it was appropriate, given the years that they’ve played together,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “It was a pretty emotional moment for our whole team. You could see the raw emotion when our guys were going over the boards.”

Wednesday’s thrilling game belonged to Malkin, who added two assists to his 500th goal and continues to lead the league with 11 points so far this year (two goals, nine assists).

Crosby also finished with a pair of assists as well as his first goal of the season, a power-play game-winner at 1:38 of overtime.

Assisting on Bryan Rust’s power-play goal in the first period gave Crosby a big milestone of his own, as he became the 10th player in NHL history to reach 1,600 points.

By the end of the night, Crosby had reached 1,602.

With all Crosby and Malkin have accomplished together, participating in another milestone moment with one another made for a special experience.

“This is a great story,” Malkin said. “I don’t know how it worked, but I’m the only assist to him on (his) 500(th goal). He’s the only assist to me — it’s crazy. Sometimes I don’t understand how it works. This is a great story for me and to him. We probably deserve to share this night together.

“I’m glad he scored 1,600 points. … He deserves every point. He’s a leader, captain — he works every practice. He’s not scored the last couple games, but he deserved the overtime goal and each point.”