Uniondale: Jaromir Jagr became the seventh player to score 700 NHL goals, reaching the mark as the New Jersey Devils routed the New York Islanders 6-1 on Saturday.
The New Jersey forward moved into this elite group when he netted his 19th goal of the season. The Islanders have been Jagr’s favourite target in his 20 NHL seasons. He has 61 goals and 88 assists in 101 career games.
“Is it that many? I love this team,” Jagr said. “It’s my favourite team. That’s a lot of goals. It’s almost 10 per cent.”
Jagr stick-handled from the right wing boards into the slot and then slid a shot along the ice that eluded New York goalie Evgeni Nabokov at 3:31 of the second to give New Jersey a 2-0 lead.
The 42-year-old Jagr was surrounded by his teammates on the ice with him and skated across the front of the bench, patting gloves along the way. He received a nice ovation from the crowd when his milestone was announced.
“Well, they knew I scored 61 goals against them,” he said with a laugh.
The Czech Republic Olympian is only eight goals behind Mike Gartner, who is sixth on the NHL career list. Wayne Gretzky holds the record of 894. Jagr is seventh in career points with 1,740.
By coincidence, Gretzky netted his 700th goal on Long Island on Jan. 3, 1991, and Marcel Dionne also reached the mark against the Islanders on Oct. 31, 1987. Dionne is fourth on the list with 731 goals.
Jagr later set up Marek Zidlicky’s power-play goal, his 1,040th assist, tying him with Dionne for ninth place in NHL history.
