STANLEY CUP FINALS : Penguin Rally Is One for Books : NHL playoffs: Lemieux, Jagr help Pittsburgh overcome 4-1 deficit to win, 5-4.

For an instant, Mario Lemieux simply stared at the sight before him.

It was like putting a feast in front of a starving man. There was the puck in front of the net, waiting for the unchecked, unguarded Pittsburgh Penguin center with the game on the line, the clock on its final few seconds and the goalie sprawled on his side.

It was a dream scene for the Penguins, a nightmare for the Chicago Blackhawks.

But Lemieux wasn’t about to pause to savor the instant. Instead, he drew back the most dangerous stick in hockey and smoothly lifted the puck over the fallen Ed Belfour.

There was no distinguishable sound as the puck bounced off the inside of the net, but the results reverberated through the sellout Civic Arena crowd of 16,164.

With that single stroke Tuesday night, Lemieux gave his Penguins a 5-4 victory over the Blackhawks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, ending the longest postseason winning streak in NHL history.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played here Thursday night.

“I think we stole one tonight,” Lemieux said. “That’s for sure.”

It was another brilliant night for the league’s top scorer, but Lemieux required plenty of help to pull off the biggest such comeback in nearly 50 years.

Consider:

--It came against a team playing the best defense in the league.

--It came after the Blackhawks soared into a 4-1, second-period lead.

--It came against a team that had swept its last two series and had won a record 11 consecutive postseason games.

--It came against Belfour, a goalie who began the night with a 12-1 mark in these playoffs and a 2.2 goals-against average.

No team had come back from a 4-1 deficit in the finals since the Montreal Canadiens did so against the Blackhawks in 1944.

The Blackhawks, expected to be the defensive force in this series, provided the early offense Tuesday. Goals by Chicago’s Chris Chelios (sixth of the postseason), Michel Goulet (third), Dirk Graham (fourth) and Brent Sutter (third) were answered only by the Penguins’ Phil Bourque (third) in the game’s first 35 minutes.

Tom Barrasso was struggling in the net for Pittsburgh. Belfour was in command.

Rick Tocchet began the comeback with his fifth goal at 15:24 of the second period.

Then Lemieux took over.

Taking a drop pass from Kevin Stevens, Lemieux skated the length of the ice, pushed the puck past a crowd of players, continued past the goal line and swerved only to find Chelios in his path.

No matter.

Lemieux somehow whipped the puck beyond the reach of Chelios, into the crease from behind the net and off Belfour’s right skate for his 12th postseason goal.

“There was a little opening,” Lemieux said. “I had no angle. I banked it off him. It was a lucky goal.”

It was Pittsburgh’s second goal in 59 seconds, putting the Penguins back in the game at 4-3.

But the best was yet to come.

With five minutes to play, 20-year-old Jaromir Jagr, already approaching Lemieux’s level as a one-on-one player, stole the puck from Sutter along the side boards in the Chicago zone.

Jagr zipped past Sutter. Past defenseman Igor Kravchuk. And past fellow defenseman Frantisek Kucera.

That brought the wheeling, whirling Jagr to the right side of the crease, where he took a long pause, set his sights and then backhanded the puck through Belfour’s legs for his 10th postseason goal.

It was a tie game with 4:55 to play.

“I don’t speak enough English to explain it,” the Czech later told reporters when asked about his goal. “Watch it on TV.”

His coach, Scotty Bowman, had no such problems describing the feat.

“I’ve seen a lot of goals,” said Bowman, appearing in his ninth finals, “but I’ve never seen one like that before.”

Lemieux called it “the greatest goal I’ve ever seen.”

With 18 seconds to play, Chicago defenseman Steve Smith broke up a potential breakaway goal for Lemieux by hooking the Pittsburgh center.

The Penguins’ Ron Francis won the ensuing faceoff from Sutter and got the puck to Larry Murphy.

Lemieux was already in motion.

“I gambled a little,” he said. “I thought Larry might get the puck. If he doesn’t, they have a breakaway. I went to the net and there was nobody there.”

Murphy fired, Belfour made the save, but was forced to leave his feet to do so. The puck squirted loose.

That was all Lemieux needed.

He scored with 13.2 seconds remaining to give Pittsburgh its eighth consecutive postseason victory.

Chicago Coach Mike Keenan called the Chicago collapse “inexcusable.”

Was Bowman worried?

“With fellows like Jagr and Lemieux,” he said, “there’s always time left.”