PITTSBURGH - The Wild might be the best defensive team in the NHL, but it has yet to face a test anything close to tonight's: Shut down Evgeni Malkin and the high-powered Pittsburgh Penguins.

Sure, the Penguins still deploy some kid named Sidney Crosby, but no NHL player has been as hot the past four weeks as Malkin, the Penguins' 22-year-old Russian superstar.

One year after finishing second in the NHL with 106 points and helping lead the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals, Malkin, nicknamed "Geno," leads the league with 23 assists, 30 points, 14 points on the power play and 20 points at home.

To put that in perspective, the Wild's Mikko Koivu, who at one time stood atop the NHL in assists and points, has leveled off with a team-leading 13 assists and 15 points.

Malkin carries a 13-game assist and point streak into tonight's game. Since 1998, the only player to record an assist streak of more than 13 games was Jaromir Jagr (16 games in 2000-01). While his English has improved, Malkin is not yet comfortable doing phone interviews, so the Star Tribune couldn't talk to him for this story.

"Malkin scored [47] goals last year, but I think he has the ability to score 55, 60 goals like [Alex] Ovechkin," said NBC and Versus color analyst Ed Olczyk. "He's a finisher, but as a center, he loves to distribute the puck and use guys around him. It's hard to find a more complete player when it comes to his ability to do both things.

"If I had to pick, I'd probably say just by a hair, he's a better distributor than scorer, but that's like, 'What side of the bed do you wake up on?' "

Olczyk coached the Penguins when Pittsburgh drafted Malkin second overall in 2004. Ovechkin went No. 1 to Washington, and the Penguins didn't know who the Capitals planned to take.

"We knew it was Ovechkin-Malkin, Malkin-Ovechkin," Olczyk said. "That's all you heard for a couple years, but our scouting staff was split on which one we wanted. At that time, we really felt we needed a big center ice man, so we were not disappointed when Washington took Ovechkin.

"But let's be honest, either way we were going to win. That's how close these guys are now and how close they were coming up."

Two years ago, Malkin became the first player in 89 years to score a goal in his first six NHL games. That same year he won the Calder Trophy by leading all rookies with 33 goals and 85 points.

But Malkin's coming-out party truly came last season when Crosby suffered a high ankle sprain. Malkin unleashed 20 goals and 26 assists in 28 games during Crosby's absence to rescue the Pens. After Dec. 31, Malkin was the NHL's leading scorer with 32 goals and 65 points in 44 games. The Penguins went 27-11-6 over that span to win the Atlantic Division.

"Sid is fortunate to have Malkin, and Malkin is fortunate to have Sid, and we're obviously very fortunate to have two franchise players," said Ray Shero, the Penguins general manager. "But last year when Sid went down, our season was supposed to be pretty much over because [goalie Marc-Andre] Fleury was out with a high ankle sprain, too.

"Geno stepped up and was probably the best player in the league during that period of time. He carried this team and solidified himself as a top player in the league with Crosby and Ovechkin."

For the good of the league, the NHL artificially invented a Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry during Crosby's first couple seasons. But that rivalry has changed to a downright nasty Malkin-Ovechkin rivalry.

The two used to be friends. However, in August 2007, Malkin told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review that Ovechkin punched out Malkin's Russian agent, Gennady Ushakov, at a Moscow night club.

"Bad situation," Malkin said.

Ovechkin has denied the incident, but he repeatedly has taken runs at Malkin during every Capitals-Penguins meeting. At last year's NHL Awards, there was obvious tension. Ovechkin-Malkin finished 1-2 in the MVP race, and the two didn't speak or even look at each other.

"The last couple games, it certainly seems there's something there," Shero said. "It's getting pretty dangerous, but I think Ovechkin brings out the best of Malkin. The competition between the two teams, and between Malkin and Ovechkin, is pretty great [for the league]."

To stay in Pittsburgh with the aim of leading the Pens to a Stanley Cup (or many), Malkin and Crosby, 21, signed for less than they could have gotten on the open market (long-term deals at $8.7 million annually). That's quite the lethal 1-2 punch.

"We all learned about Sid his first couple years, but Malkin is as advertised, too," Olczyk said.