Crosby, Malkin lead Penguins past Sabres 6-5 in OT to cap milestone night

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored a power-play goal at 1:38 of overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied to beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-5 on Wednesday night.

Evgeni Malkin became the 48th player in NHL history to score 500 career goals and Crosby became the 10th player in NHL history to reach 1,600 regular-season points in a career. Crosby, from behind the net, sent a between-the-legs pass in front to Malkin, who was sitting on the ice when he scored his goal.

Crosby reached the milestone when he recorded the secondary assist on Bryan Rust’s power-play goal at 11:01 of the first period. Rust scored his second goal with 46 seconds left to force overtime. Drew O’Connor scored a short-handed goal and Jesse Puljujarvi added his second of the season.

Tristan Jarry allowed three goals on five shots in the first period before he was pulled. Joel Blomqvist came on and finished with 26 saves.

J.J. Peterka, back after missing the last two games with a concussion, scored twice for Buffalo. Ryan McLeod, Tage Thompson and Jordan Greenway also scored for the Sabres and Alex Tuch had two assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 36 shots.

Sabres: The Sabres nearly won consecutive games for the first time this season. Buffalo lost its first three by a combined 10-3 margin, but were unable to protect leads of 3-1 and 5-4.

Penguins: Pittsburgh won consecutive games for the first time this season.

Rust tapped in a loose rebound from the top of the crease with 46 seconds left in regulation to tie the score.

The Penguins are 399-90-47 when Crosby and Malkin record a point.

Sabres continue a three-game road trip at Columbus on Thursday, and Penguins host Carolina on Friday before a four-game road trip.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL