Malkin is amazing! He scored his 500th goal and moved into first place in the NHL scoring race.
Dmitry Storozhev October 17, 2024, 06:22 Moscow time
Evgeniy played another amazing game and celebrated another great anniversary.
Before the start of the regular season, Evgeni Malkin set the goal of scoring four points in each game. Of course, achieving this at the age of 38 is almost impossible, but the Russian striker did everything to maintain this level. After the first game of the championship with the Rangers, in which Pittsburgh completely failed (0:6), Malkin scored at least two points in each of the subsequent games and had seven effective actions in four games.
At the same time, Evgeniy managed to achieve two important milestones: in the meeting with Detroit he scored a double assist, making his assists 799 and 800 in the NHL, respectively, and in the next game with Toronto he repeated this result and reached 1300 point in the league. The last game against Montreal brought Malkin closer to another anniversary: the first goal of the season meant he was just one accurate shot away from scoring his 500th goal.
The first half of the home game against Buffalo, however, foreshadowed nothing of the sort: the Penguins quickly found themselves in a comeback role, conceding two goals early in the fourth minute. Although the locals knew how to convert the first power play of the game, not without the help of Malkin, who gave an assist to Brian Rust, half a minute later the Blades increased the lead to two goals again and forced the Pittsburgh team. coach to replace the goalkeeper already halfway through the first half.
Finnish goalkeeper Joel Blomqvist, who recently made his NHL debut, helped the Penguins recover: the 22-year-old goalkeeper did not lose until the middle of the third twenty minutes, which allowed his team not only to recover, but also to take the lead at the beginning of the last period of regulation time.
Evgeni Malkin led his team forward: the Russian, while falling, managed to send the puck into the goal and still achieved another anniversary. The wide smile on the forward’s face was visible to the naked eye, and the entire Pittsburgh team took to the ice to congratulate one of their leaders on another great achievement.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can watch the video on the NHL website.
The joy of the anniversary was almost overshadowed by the defeat, because in the middle of the period Buffalo scored two goals with an interval of 40 seconds and again found itself in the leading position. However, Malkin was in no mood to lose today: together with Rast he helped Rikard Rakell score, who sent the match into overtime 46 seconds before the end of regulation time.
And in extra time, the “blades” almost personally gave the hosts the victory in this match: Tage Thompson went to serve his punishment for tripping Evgeni Malkin, and Gino directly participated in the opponent’s punishment. The Russian forward scored a hat-trick of assists and the decisive shot was scored by Sidney Crosby, who scored three points today and surpassed the mark of 1,600 games in the NHL.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can watch the video on the NHL website.
Malkin, for the first time this season, scored four points in a game, achieving his goal set before the season and taking sole first place in the league’s scoring race. He already has 11 effective actions, while his closest pursuers only have eight – what incredible shape Evgeniy is in now!
