NHL Roundup : Lemieux Gets 5th Hat Trick

Until Mario Lemieux began to challenge him last season, Wayne Gretzky usually was in the process of sewing up another scoring title as the season moved into January.

While Gretzky is helping make the Kings a winning team, Lemieux is in position to wrap up his second consecutive scoring title.

Lemieux had his fifth hat trick of the season Tuesday night to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-3 victory over the New York Islanders at Pittsburgh.

In 39 games, Lemieux has 46 goals and 109 points. He is far in front in both categories.

The Penguins, who moved back into first place in the Patrick Division race, have 39 games remaining. If Lemieux, who missed 2 games with an injury, can duplicate his first half of the season, he can tie Gretzky’s record for goals and break his record for points.

In the 1981-82 season, Gretzky had 92 goals. In 1985-86, he had 215 points.

Only outstanding goaltending by the Islanders’ Kelly Hrudey prevented Lemieux from scoring more. Hrudey stopped Lemieux twice on breakaway attempts.

Philadelphia 3, Minnesota 2--The Flyers, who had lost 2 in a row, welcomed back two injured players, Derrick Smith and Tim Kerr, and they helped end the losing streak.

Smith missed 2 games with a hip pointer, but he scored the winning goal halfway through the final period at Philadelphia, just 47 seconds after teammate Rick Tocchet tied it.

Kerr, who was out 5 games with a shoulder injury, scored his 28th goal with 8:13 left in the second period.

Hartford 2, Winnipeg 1--Kevin Dineen scored a goal and assisted on another at Winnipeg to lead the Whalers to their fourth win in 5 games.

Washington 4, Quebec 4--Kevin Hatcher and Dave Christian scored third-period goals at Quebec to wipe out the Nordiques’ 2-goal lead.