NHL ROUNDUP : Lemieux Extends Streak as Penguins Win

Mario Lemieux is beginning to play the way he did last season and new Pittsburgh Coach Craig Patrick is enjoying it immensely.

Lemieux, last season’s NHL player of the year, and the Penguins were off to a slow start that wound up getting Coach Gene Ubriaco fired.

In extending his scoring streak to 17 games, Lemieux, who scored 199 points last season, gave the Penguins a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils Friday night at East Rutherford, N.J., by scoring his 16th goal early in the third period.

Lemieux has 13 goals and 22 assists during his streak.

The Penguins, 2-0 under Patrick, moved into a tie for third place in the Patrick Division with Washington with their third consecutive victory. Under Ubriaco, the Penguins were 10-14-2.

The Devils, a point behind the Penguins, have lost four in a row.

Detroit 2, Minnesota 1--A year ago, the Red Wings were in front in the Norris Division and the North Stars were struggling to stay out of the cellar.

The roles are reversed this season, the North Stars leading the division and the Wings, who won six of their first 27 games, are last.

Shawn Burr snapped a tie midway through the third period at Detroit and the teams continued to move closer together.

The Wings are 2-0-2 in their last four games and the North Stars lost their fifth in a row.

Winnipeg 6, Montreal 6--Greg Paaslawski scored with just 1:41 left in regulation at Winnipeg to give the Jets a tie.

The Jets seemed beaten when two goals by Chris Chelios and another by Eric Desjardins gave the Canadiens a 6-3 lead with less than 10 minutes left. Mark Kumpel and Dale Hawerchuk scored to set the stage for the tie.