Pittsburgh Gets Unexpected Help

The Edmonton Oilers held Mario Lemieux to one shot and that was turned away. He had no assists. That’s what you have to do to beat Pittsburgh.

But the Penguins showed that they have more than Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr on Thursday night at home, getting a third-period goal from rookie fourth-line left wing Joe Dziedzic that snapped a tie and gave them a 5-4 victory.

New acquisitions Kevin Miller and J.J. Daigneault also scored for the Penguins.

“That’s what we’re going to need,” said center Ron Francis, who had one assist. “Experience tells you that you can’t go into the playoffs with just one or two guys scoring or just one line.”

The Penguins survived being outshot, 45-30, and also won with Lemieux being shut out in Pittsburgh for the first time all season and for only the sixth time in 60 games anywhere.

“He had some chances for assists,” Edmonton defenseman Jeff Norton said. “He had some passes blocked and tipped, and some of them hit skates. We got a little bit lucky against him. We played well and this was just one of those nights where he didn’t light the building up.”

Dziedzic scored off Chris Joseph’s rebound at 3:29 for his fifth goal of the season. Three of the five have been game-winners, and this one pushed the Penguins ahead of the idle New York Rangers into first place in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh has 88 points, two more than the Rangers.

Boston 3, Ottawa 1--Former King Rick Tocchet had his second hat trick in five games and the 14th of his career and Adam Oates reached 900 points for the Bruins, who won at Boston and stretched their unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1).

Ottawa had only three shots in the first period and 16 in the game.

Florida 3, New York Islanders 2--The Panthers’ newest player, Ray Sheppard, scored three goals at Miami to power the Panthers to their third consecutive victory and move them into third place in the Eastern Conference, only one point behind the Rangers.

Sheppard sparked the Panthers in only his third game with the team. He was obtained six days ago in a trade with San Jose.

The goals, his first with Florida, gave him 32 on the season. He and Pittsburgh’s Jagr are the only players with at least 30 goals in each of the past five seasons.

Washington 3, Tampa Bay 3--Alexander Selivanov scored with 47 seconds to play to lift the Lightning to a tie at Tampa.

Selivanov collected a loose puck near the Washington blue line after a turnover by Sylvain Cote and broke in alone on Capital goaltender Jim Carey, shooting high to the glove side for his second goal of the game.

The tie provided a crucial point to the Lightning, who are in a three-way tie with the Capitals and New Jersey for the seventh spot in the East.