[bigboydan]

it's an amazing feat that nobody really has talked about. what made this one even more special is the fact that he did it while playing on that piss poor penguins team.

Sidney Crosby's rookie season keeps getting even more special.

Crosby became the youngest player in NHL history to score 100 points in a season, setting up three goals Monday night in the Pittsburgh Penguins' 6-1 victory over the New York Islanders.

Crosby's three-point night gave him 62 assists, to go with 38 goals, and tied Mario Lemieux (1984-85) for the team rookie scoring record of 100 points. Crosby also joined Hall of Fame forward Dale Hawerchuk of the Winnipeg Jets (103 points, 1981-82) as the only 18-year-olds to score 100 points in an NHL season.

``You're only a rookie once, and this is the only opportunity you have to achieve something like that,'' Crosby said after the Penguins' home finale. ``It was nice to be able to do that here - I scored my first goal here, and this was a very similar feeling to that.''

Hawerchuk was three-plus months older than Crosby when he did it, and only a few days short of 19. Crosby's season might be more comparable to Wayne Gretzky's first when, in the year in which The Great One turned 18, he scored 104 points for the WHA's Edmonton Oilers in 1978-79. The Oilers moved into the NHL a season later.

``It's a great accomplishment, and I'm definitely proud of it,'' Crosby said. ``By no means, coming into the season, did I think about getting 100 points. But as it became near, it was something I thought would be a nice feat, and I tried to have the best finish to the season - and have no regrets.''

Crosby, who closes the regular season at Toronto on Tuesday night, has 20 points in his last nine games and 13 in his last six.

``One hundred points? At 18?'' teammate Colby Armstrong said. ``This kid's doing something most people can't imagine or dream of.''

In other games, it was: Washington 6, Atlanta 4; Detroit 3, Dallas 2; Edmonton 4, Colorado 2; Los Angeles 4, San Jose 0; and Anaheim 4, Calgary 3.

Playing before a noisy, T-shirt-twirling home crowd of 17,084 that reacted to his every shift as it were the playoffs and not an almost meaningless late-season game, Crosby gave the fans exactly what they wanted to see: Three points - and his name in the record book.

Crosby also became the seventh NHL rookie to reach the 100-point mark, joining Teemu Selanne, Hawerchuk, Lemieux, Joe Juneau, Peter Stastny and Washington's Alexander Ovechkin, who reached the mark last week.

Crosby didn't take long to get his first point, executing a two-on-one break for Andy Hilbert's 12th goal at 1:04 of the first. Then, midway through the second period, Crosby needed only 25 seconds to get points No. 99 and 100.

Crosby got his 99th at 15:19, passing to Armstrong along the right wing boards before cutting to the net, taking the return pass and feeding it ahead for Tomas Surovy's 12th goal.

After the Islanders' Jason Blake drew a 5-minute charging penalty, Crosby grabbed the puck off John LeClair's faceoff win and passed it up ice to Ryan Malone, who beat Garth Snow for his 21st goal and second of the game, at 15:44.

``When he started to get around 80 points, you really started to believe he could do it,'' Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. ``But I didn't want to take away from the team concept. He did it within a team concept, and he deserves a lot of credit.''

``When he started to get around 80 points, you really started to believe he could do it,'' Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. ``But I didn't want to take away from the team concept. He did it within a team concept, and he deserves a lot of credit.''

At Washington, Ovechkin scored the tying goal and assisted on the go-ahead goal, helping the Capitals eliminate the Thrashers from playoff contention.

Ovechkin, honored by the Capitals during ceremonies before and after Washington's home finale, scored from the left slot on a pass from Ben Clymer to tie it 2:36 into the final period, then found Brian Willsie open during a two-man advantage for the score that made it 5-4 at the 8:58 mark.

Matt Pettinger tacked on an insurance goal at 12:26, his second of the game, giving him 20 for the season.

Ovechkin reached 52 goals and 105 points; both totals rank third in NHL history for a rookie.

Ovechkin reached 52 goals and 105 points; both totals rank third in NHL history for a rookie.

Tomas Holmstrom's power-play goal with 44.3 seconds remaining capped host Detroit's three-goal third period, rallying the Red Wings over Dallas.

Johan Franzen and Andreas Lilja also scored and Henrik Zetterberg added two assists for Detroit, which trailed 2-0 before stretching its winning streak to eight games. The Red Wings also made it 20 consecutive games (17-0-3) with at least a point, since their last regulation loss on March 7.

Jason Arnott had a goal and an assist, and Jere Lehtinen also scored for Dallas.

Jason Arnott had a goal and an assist, and Jere Lehtinen also scored for Dallas.

Jarret Stoll scored a short-handed, tiebreaking goal in the third period to lead host Edmonton.

Jaroslav Spacek added an empty-netter in the final second, and Rem Murray and Raffi Torres also scored as the Oilers won their second straight to close the regular season.

Joe Sakic and Patrice Brisebois scored for the Avalanche.

Joe Sakic and Patrice Brisebois scored for the Avalanche.

Luc Robitaille went scoreless in the final game of his 19 NHL seasons, but Los Angeles sent the top goal-scorer in franchise history into retirement with a season-ending victory at San Jose.

Jason LaBarbera stopped 31 shots for his first NHL shutout, while Pavol Demitra, Mike Cammalleri and Mattias Norstrom each had a goal and an assist for the Kings, who snapped the Sharks' eight-game winning streak.

Jason LaBarbera stopped 31 shots for his first NHL shutout, while Pavol Demitra, Mike Cammalleri and Mattias Norstrom each had a goal and an assist for the Kings, who snapped the Sharks' eight-game winning streak.

Teemu Selanne capped a remarkable comeback season with his 40th goal on a power play midway through the third period, leading host Anaheim.

Mighty Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the 2003 playoff MVP, stopped 29 shots. Rookies Chris Kunitz and Corey Perry scored power-play goals less than 5 minutes apart in the first period. Andy McDonald got his 34th goal, and rookie Ryan Getzlaf had three assists.

Jarome Iginla, Byron Ritchie and Daymond Langkow scored for the Flames.

[Illusion]

Great accomplishment for the kid.

[onlooker]

Yes, amazing he did it on that team. Then again, that helped him out.

[Razz]

Yes, amazing he did it on that team. Then again, that helped him out.

Exactly. There's no way he would have done it playing on the third line for the Senators.
Still very impressive, even in the video game era of the NHL.