Lemieux, Penguins Take Over : Stanley Cup: With Roenick on bench, Pittsburgh grabs 2-0 lead over Chicago with 3-1 victory.

Mario Lemieux and Jeremy Roenick.

Stars of their respective teams, they have become the pivotal figures in the Stanley Cup finals, but for vastly different reasons.

One can’t be stopped, the other can’t be found.

One is excelling on the ice, the other languishing on the bench.

So it’s no surprise that the Pittsburgh Penguins lead the best-of-seven series, 2-0, after winning Game 2 Thursday night, 3-1, before a sellout crowd of 16,164 at the Civic Arena.

Game 3 will be played in Chicago Stadium Saturday night.

Lemieux was again the star Thursday, scoring two goals to give him four in the two games, including both game winners, and a league-leading 15 postseason goals in 13 games.

No such heroics for Roenick, who had a career-high 53 regular-season goals and 10 in the postseason coming into this series.

But Pittsburgh has pulled his plug. All Roenick has to show for the two games is one missed shot, that in Game 1.

It got so bad Thursday, Coach Mike Keenan benched both Roenick and Steve Larmer (eight postseason goals) and gave additional ice time to Stu Grimson and Mike Peluso (one postseason goal between them). Roenick and Larmer had only three shifts in the second period and one in the third.

But this was more than simply a tale of two stars. Pittsburgh, renowned for its arsenal of offensive weapons, showed it can play without the puck as well, turning in what Lemieux called the Penguins’ best defensive effort of the playoffs.

Hard to argue with that assessment considering that Pittsburgh held Chicago to 19 shots on goal, including four in each of the last two periods.

But when the Blackhawks most desperately needed an offensive spark, their scoring leader was nowhere to be found, the stick taken out of his hands by his own coach.

Was Keenan playing to win or playing mind games to fire up the struggling Roenick, a tactic Keenan has used many times with many players?

“I can’t decipher what his reasons are,” Roenick said. “It was very frustrating. I knew the position we were in. I feel I was working hard. I was getting good hits. And he sat me on the bench. It was tough to take. He sat me out three or four shifts, the last eight minutes of the game. But I can’t worry about what he’s going to do. I have to worry about what I’m going to do. This is something I have to work through. When you’re out there, you have to do the job.”

Roenick failed to do so in Keenan’s mind.

“Because our players were unable to penetrate their zone, our offensive players gave us very little offensive thrust,” Keenan said. “Give full credit to Pittsburgh. They never gave us any room whatsoever. We were trying to wear them down a little. We tried to use our bigger players (Grimson is 6-5, 220 pounds, Peluso 6-4, 200), who would go in and take the body more frequently.”

It looked as if Chicago might take command of the game early after the Penguins’ Paul Stanton was slapped with a double minor for tripping and delay of game.

But Pittsburgh’s Bob Errey, taking a long pass from Jim Paek just across the Blackhawk blue line, backhanded in his third goal of the playoffs short-handed.

Chicago tied the game in the second period on Bryan Marchment’s first postseason goal.

But, before the period was over, Lemieux had his two.

From then on, it was a long night on the ice for the Blackhawks.

And an even longer night on the bench for Roenick.

Stanley Cup Notes

Although New York Ranger assistant coach Colin Campbell says he has been contacted by the Kings regarding the open head coaching job, King General Manager Rogie Vachon says he hasn’t spoken with Campbell. “I’ve done no interviewing yet,” Vachon said by phone from his Los Angeles home. “I’m not sure if he (Campbell) is in the running. I’m not saying he wouldn’t be. We are still putting together a bunch of names. We are looking for a good, hard-nosed coach.” Vachon also downplayed rumors that Boston Bruin assistant general manager Mike Milbury might be in the running. . . . A coin flip was held at Civic Arena before Thursday’s game to determine the drafting position of the expansion teams--the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Ottawa Senators--in the expansion and entry drafts. Ottawa won the top spot in the expansion draft while Tampa Bay did the same in the entry draft.