Penguins Advance Minus Stars

They had no Lemieux, no Mullen, and, it seemed, no chance against the NHL’s regular-season champions.

But the Pittsburgh Penguins did the unlikely Wednesday night, repeating as Patrick Division champions by eliminating the New York Rangers, 5-1, in six games.

Jaromir Jagr put Pittsburgh ahead with a remarkable goal and Shawn McEachern followed with his first-ever NHL goal.

That meant that the Penguins, who had never won a division title until last year, will be rematched with the Boston Bruins in the Wales Conference finals, beginning here Sunday at the Civic Arena.

Despite injuries to two of their top three scorers, Mario Lemieux and Joey Mullen, the Penguins came back from a 2-1 series deficit. In the division semifinals, they rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat Washington.

“We knew everybody thought we were done after Mario and Joey got hurt, but we didn’t believe it,” center Ron Francis said. “Kevin Stevens and Rick Tocchet wouldn’t let us. They convinced everybody we could do it.”

Stevens said, “Winning the Stanley Cup last year was the ultimate, but this was close.”

It was another in a five-decade history of Ranger disappointments. The Rangers last won the Stanley Cup in 1940.

The Rangers, tops in the NHL with a 50-25-5 record, followed a trend of other losing division winners. Earlier, Montreal was eliminated in the Adams Division, Vancouver in the Smythe and Detroit in the Norris.

Just as he was in the Penguins’ 3-2 victory in Game 5, the 20-year-old Jagr, who was playing junior hockey in Czechoslovakia two years ago, was the difference.

Jagr, who scored on a penalty shot and then got the game-winner late in Game 5, grabbed Stevens’ pass to the slot out of midair, dropped it to his stick and flipped it past John Vanbiesbrouck to make it 2-1 at 11:22 of the second.

Then, for the second consecutive game on home ice, the Penguins got a huge first-ever NHL goal--McEachern putting in a rebound of his own missed shot at 13:43. The Penguins got Mike Needham’s first NHL goal in their overtime victory in Game 4 last Saturday. Later, McEachern missed a penalty shot, the second such attempt awarded in this series.

Penguin goaltender Tom Barrasso made 33 saves.