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

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.”