Crosby Passes Dionne for Sixth All-Time as Penguins Beat Kings 5-2 to End Skid

It was not a pretty goal. It never is when the puck comes at you off a teammate's stick and all you can do is get in the way. But Sidney Crosby has built a career out of being in the right place, and at 17:13 of the second period on Saturday night in Los Angeles, the right place was directly in the path of Evgeni Malkin's one-timer. The puck caught a piece of him, beat Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, and just like that Crosby had his 1,772nd career point — and sole possession of sixth place on the NHL's all-time scoring list.

The goal was first credited to Malkin, then switched to Crosby, and the delay only added to the moment. Crosby had arrived in Los Angeles tied with Marcel Dionne, the Kings great, on 1,771 points. One deflection later, Dionne was behind him. Crosby added an empty-net goal late on, diving face-first across the ice to knock a rolling puck home, to finish the night with 1,773 points — 660 goals and 1,113 assists in 1,437 regular-season games across 21 seasons. Next on the list is Ron Francis, 26 points away in fifth. Ahead of him now stand only Francis, Gordie Howe, Mark Messier, Jaromir Jagr and Wayne Gretzky.

The milestone was the headline, but the win mattered just as much to a Pittsburgh team that had forgotten how it felt. The Penguins had lost four straight and had not won on the road in seven games, a run stretching back to their 7-0 season-opening win in Philadelphia. "You just got to try to win a game," Crosby had said during the skid, and on Saturday they finally did, beating the Kings 5-2 at Crypto.com Arena.

Tommy Novak did the early damage, scoring twice in the first five minutes — at 1:52 and again at 5:10 — to give Pittsburgh a lead it never gave up. Egor Chinakhov made it 3-1 on a power play late in the first after a video review confirmed his wrist shot had gone in off the back bar, and Malkin finished with three assists. Corey Perry and Alex Laferriere scored for Los Angeles, but every time the Kings threatened, the Penguins answered, and Sergei Murashov's 26 saves kept the door shut.

It has been a season of climbing for the 39-year-old captain. Last season he passed Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman for eighth and seventh all-time in points, and in October he moved past Joe Thornton for seventh on the career assists list. He now sits 14th all-time in goals, too. The Penguins improved to 6-9-2 with the win and visit Anaheim on Sunday, but the night belonged to the milestone. Twenty-one seasons in, Crosby is still adding lines to a record that grows more remarkable every time he touches the puck.