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Crosby cracks NHL milestone with 1,000th point

The 29-year-old Canadian center reached the plateau in a 4-3 victory at Pittsburgh on Thursday with an assist on Chris Kunitz's goal 6:28 into the opening period.

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates towards the bench during the 2008 NHL Stanley Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings

The 29-year-old Canadian center reached the plateau in a 4-3 victory at Pittsburgh on Thursday with an assist on Chris Kunitz's goal 6:28 into the opening period.

Then Crosby netted the game-winning goal with 21 seconds remaining in the five-minute extra session for the victory.

"It's nice to win the game when you have a memorable night like this," Crosby said. "You want to finish it the right way."

Crosby, who has 369 NHL goals and 633 assists, became the 86th player in NHL history to reach the 1,000-point mark.

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He is also the 12th-fastest player to acheive the milestone, doing so in 757 career games.

"I was hovering around it for a while, so it's nice to get it and nice to get a win," Crosby said. "You get that early and you want to make sure you win the game."

Crosby became the second-youngest active player to reach 1,000 NHL points behind Czech star Jaromir Jagr of Florida, who was 28 when he did it. Jagr scored his 1,900th career NHL point on Wednesday, his 45th birthday.

Crosby was the hero for Canada's 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics gold medal squad, scoring the title-winning goal in overtime in the final against the United States.

He won a second Olympic gold with Canada in 2014 and last year captured his second Stanley Cup with the Penguins as well as leading Canada to the World Cup of Hockey crown, capturing Most Valuable Player honors in the NHL playoffs and World Cup.

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"He's a tremendous player," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "The fact that he scored 1,000 points in the games that he has, I think, is just a testament to the player that he is and the character of the person. He's an ultra-competitive guy. He loves to win."

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