Jagr Shows His Hart in Penguins’ Victory

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Jaromir Jagr was ignored in voting to select the league’s best player. Instead his teammate, Mario Lemieux, and the New York Rangers’ Mark Messier are two of the three finalists for the Hart Trophy, given to the league MVP.

But there was no ignoring Jagr on Friday night at Pittsburgh, where he flashed his credentials by scoring twice, his fourth and fifth goals of the postseason, and setting up Lemieux’s game-winning goal as the Penguins defeated the Rangers, 4-3, in the opener of their second-round playoff series.

Messier also scored a goal, but Lemieux got the clincher at 12:43 of the third period. With New York caught in a line change, Jagr’s move on defenseman Bruce Driver at the blue line freed him to make an on-the-stick, cross-ice pass as Lemieux sped into the left circle. The streaking Lemieux then deposited the puck in the open side of the net.

“It’s a shame he isn’t up for the Hart Trophy,” Lemieux said of Jagr, the NHL’s second-leading goal producer and overall scorer behind Lemieux during the regular season. “It was a shock not to see his name there. He made a great play to get me the puck on the last goal.”

Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers is the third finalist for the Hart Trophy.

Pittsburgh goalie Ken Wregget stopped 26 shots for his fourth consecutive victory since replacing the injured Tom Barrasso during the Penguins’ four-overtime victory in Game 4 against the Washington Capitals in the opening round.

The Penguins had lost 16 of their previous 29 playoff openers.

Detroit 3, St. Louis 2--Sergei Fedorov scored his first playoff goal with 2:06 remaining to give the Red Wings the victory at Detroit.

Paul Coffey intercepted a pass and started the play with a feed to Vyacheslav Kozlov. He skated into the left circle, then slipped the puck to Fedorov in the slot. Fedorov forced goalie Jon Casey left, then flipped the puck into the net on the stick side.

“We kind of stole this game, I think,” said Detroit coach Scotty Bowman, who has been worried that the accolades his team has received after winning a record 62 regular-season games would result in overconfidence. “We probably listened to people tell us how good we were.”

St. Louis’ Shayne Corson scored on a power play, the first power-play goal of the playoffs against Detroit after the Winnipeg Jets had gone 0-for-28 in that category in the first round. The Blues finally broke through on their fifth power-play opportunity.

The Blues’ Brett Hull also got a goal on a power play, moving him into a 15th-place tie with his father, Bobby, on the career playoff scoring list, each with 62 goals.

Detroit hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1955.

NHL Notes

The Whalers agreed to a two-week extension of their deadline for selling 11,000 season tickets, which is the key to their decision on whether to stay in Hartford.