Macklin Celebrini Hits 200 Points — Fifth-Youngest Ever, and He Did It Against Crosby

For 51 minutes on Wednesday night, Sergei Murashov had the San Jose Sharks shut out, and the game at SAP Center felt like it was already in the books. Pittsburgh led 2-0. The Sharks had thrown everything they had at a 22-year-old goalie playing well beyond his years and had nothing to show for any of it.

Then Michael Kesselring got the puck at the left face-off dot and bumped it into the slot, and Macklin Celebrini did the thing he has been doing since he arrived in this league. He sold the fake, waited out the defense, and snapped a wrist shot under Murashov's glove at 11:32 of the third period.

The goal cut the lead to 2-1. It was also the 200th point of Celebrini's career — in his 171st game, at 20 years and 151 days old.

The company he just joined

Only four players in NHL history have reached 200 points younger than Celebrini did on Wednesday. Sidney Crosby got there at 19 years and 207 days. Wayne Gretzky was 19 and 347 days. Jimmy Carson was 20 and 107 days, and Mario Lemieux 20 and 133 days. Celebrini is fifth on that list, and he is the 14th player ever to pass 200 points before turning 21.

Measured by games instead of birthdays, he is the fifth-fastest active player to the mark — behind Crosby (142 games), Alex Ovechkin (165), Evgeni Malkin (166) and Kirill Kaprizov (167). Measured inside his own franchise, there is no race at all. Celebrini is the fastest player who began his career in San Jose to reach 200 points, and it is not close: Logan Couture, the previous standard, needed 273 games. Celebrini needed 171.

Crosby, the name at the top of both lists, was in the building on the other side. So was Malkin, who quietly set a record of his own on Wednesday — the first player aged 40 or older to record an assist on six consecutive team goals, per the NHL's game notes.

He was not finished

Four minutes after the milestone goal, Celebrini was at the right face-off dot with the Sharks still chasing the game. He put a pass across to Mason Marchment at the left post, and Marchment tapped it in to tie the game 2-2 at 15:49. It was Marchment's 100th career goal, and point No. 201 for Celebrini.

"That doesn't really happen without the guys in this room," Celebrini said of the milestone, "the guys I play with, and all the plays that they make and all the work that they put in."

San Jose took the point and no more. Overtime solved nothing — the Sharks survived a late Pittsburgh push and could not convert a 43-second power play at the end of it — and in the shootout, Ben Kindel, who had already scored Pittsburgh's second goal, beat Yaroslav Askarov through the five-hole for the only conversion. Celebrini shot second for San Jose and missed, Murashov out-waiting him. Final: Penguins 3, Sharks 2.

"We've seen it right since the moment we drafted him," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "He's a special player, special person. Worked extremely hard at his craft and it's an honor that he did that."

The part that should worry San Jose

The milestone is real, and so is the problem standing next to it. The Sharks are 8-11-2 and have lost six of their last seven. Wednesday was their ninth straight game scoring three goals or fewer, and both of the goals they did score ran through one 20-year-old. Celebrini has eight goals and 23 points through 19 games; when he does not create, San Jose mostly does not score. Erik Karlsson, back in the building he used to call home, played a game-high 27:04 for Pittsburgh and set up Kindel's power-play goal with the one-timer that started the sequence.

None of that follows Celebrini onto the list he joined. The list is 200 points, reached faster by age than all but four players who have ever played the game. Crosby got there in 142 games and Celebrini needed 171, so the gap between him and the very top is real. So is the company.