Malkin and Ovechkin hit major milestones within minutes of each other

Collecting 1,000 regular season points in the NHL is no small feat.

Racking up 1,200 isn’t either.

Just ask Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin. Midway through the third period of Tuesday’s Penguins-Capitals contest, the two Russian offensive magicians hit those impressive benchmarks Within 126 seconds of each other.

After picking up a secondary assist on Sidney Crosby’s tally on the man advantage late in the second period, Malkin entered the final 20 minutes with 999 regular season points.

11:56 into the third, a secondary assist on Phil Kessel’s power-play marker boosted that total to four digits.

In the process, Malkin became the 88th player in NHL history to reach the milestone, according to Sportsnet’s John Shannon. While the goal itself wasn’t anything jaw-dropping, the love that he got from the fans in attendance was.

“I still can’t believe what’s going on right now,” MAlkin said following Pittsburgh’s 5-3 victory at PPG Paints Arena, according to the team’s official Twitter account. “1,000 points, it’s a great number.”

While Malkin became just the fifth Russian-born NHLer to break the threshold, another member of that exclusive club was also in the game and in search of a milestone himself.

Just over two minutes after Kessel’s tally, Ovechkin grabbed a secondary helper on John Carlson’s power-play goal. That point proved to be the 1,200th point of his career.

So, I guess you could say that the first and second overall selections in the 2004 NHL draft have lived up to the hype — both in productivity and longevity.

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