NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : Penguins’ Barrasso Stymies Capitals

By being forced to play most of the season without ailing Mario Lemieux, the Pittsburgh Penguins learned a valuable lesson. They found they could win without their high-scoring center.

They turned to goaltender Tom Barrasso and talented youngsters Kevin Stevens and Mark Recchi.

Lemieux’s back still hurts and he doesn’t have the mobility he had a couple of years ago. It was Barrasso, Stevens and Recchi who led the Penguins to a 3-1 victory over the Washington Capitals Tuesday night at Landover, Md.

The victory gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead in the second round Stanley Cup series. The Penguins can end it at home Thursday night.

Barrasso had 38 saves and Stevens scored the tie-breaking goal midway through the third period. Recchi, who has developed rapidly as a rookie, scored the first goal and assisted on the other two. Lemieux had a hand in every goal.

Tim Bergland gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. Barrasso dominated them after that.

In his two games since recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in the fifth game of the first round, Barrasso has faced 66 shots and stopped 64.

It was the first time ever in playoff competition that the Penguins held teams under two goals in consecutive games.

Stevens has seven goals, including the decisive one in each of the last three games.

Montreal 6, Boston 2--Shayne Corson revived the Canadiens’ hopes of winning the series at Montreal.

Corson scored two goals and set up two others and the Canadiens tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2.

Late in the second period, Corson, with the Canadiens leading, 5-1, struck Boston forward Dave Christian in the eye with his stick. He was ejected; Christian was not seriously injured.

Boston scored on the five-minute power play that resulted from the stick incident, but that was the extent of their scoring.

The teams return to Boston Thursday night for the fifth game.