NHL ROUNDUP : Lemieux, Penguins Struggle Again

For the last two seasons, Mario Lemieux has been the National Hockey League scoring champion and has been voted by his peers as the league’s best player.

Last season the powerful center, in his fifth year, finally led the Pittsburgh Penguins into the playoffs.

This season, Lemieux, 25, was supposed to remove any doubt regarding his superiority over Wayne Gretzky.

Instead, the 6-foot-4, 200-pounder has been mired in a slump.

Lemieux ended a two-game scoreless string with an assist Wednesday night at Pittsburgh, but it was not enough to keep the Penguins from losing again. Daniel Marois scored the tiebreaking goal with two minutes left and the Toronto Maple Leafs won, 8-6.

With Lemieux scoring 15 goals and accumulating 33 points, the Penguins were 6-3 at this stage last season. This season, they are 3-5-1, and Lemieux has only four goals and 15 points. He has a simple explanation.

“I’m not the player I was a year ago,” he told the Associated Press. “I’m not playing like I did then. It seems that I’m a step behind all the time and I don’t have the jump I had last year. With the season almost a month old, it’s beginning to get serious.”

Hartford 2, Quebec 0--After a decade as one of the best goaltenders in hockey, Mike Liut slipped last season. Bothered by nagging injuries, he played in only 35 games and had a high goals-against average of 4.25.

Injury-free again, Liut, 33, is off to a brilliant start. By stopping all 22 of the Nordiques’ shots at Hartford, Conn., Liut improved his league-leading goals-against average to 1.81.

It was his 21st shutout, tops among active goaltenders, but his first in almost a year.

“I don’t think I’ve ever played a stretch in which I had such support in front of me,” Liut said.

Six of Liut’s saves, including three spectacular ones, were against Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur.

Dave Babych and Pat Verbeek scored first-period goals to give Liut all the support he needed.

Edmonton 3, New York Rangers 3--The way things have been going for the Oilers lately, ties on the road against both New York teams represents a good trip.

For the second night in a row, Jari Kurri rallied the Oilers in the closing moments to get the tie.

Tuesday night at Uniondale, he scored a goal and assisted on another as the Oilers wiped out a two-goal deficit. In this one, the high-scoring wing got the puck in a scramble in front of the net and scored his seventh goal with 4:14 left in regulation.

Minnesota 4, Buffalo 2--Defenseman Larry Murphy scored his first goal of the season 17 seconds after Soviet Alexander Mogilny tied the score for the Sabres in the third period.

Murphy, who leads the North Stars with 11 assists, enabled his team to remain perfect at home (4-0-0).

Mogilny’s goal, his first in the NHL, came at 1:25 of the final period.

Winnipeg 6, Washington 4--Dale Hawerchuk scored a goal and assisted on two others at Winnipeg to lead the Jets to victory.

Dave Ellett scored the go-ahead goal on a power play halfway through the final period, then set up an empty-net goal in the final seconds by Greg Paslawski.