Lemieux and Jagr Lead Ouster of Rangers

The New York Rangers have all summer to figure out what they did wrong against Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. It just might take that long.

Jagr scored three times in 17 1/2 minutes and Lemieux also had three goals as the Penguins eliminated the Rangers from the playoffs with a 7-3 victory at Pittsburgh Saturday night.

The Penguins will now move into the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since they won the Stanley Cup in 1992. They will have a week off before meeting either Philadelphia or Florida.

“Matchups became nonexistent,” New York Coach Colin Campbell said. “It didn’t matter who we put out there against them. They scored at will.”

Lemieux scored eight goals and Jagr had seven in the series--matching the Rangers’ 15 goals --to clearly outplay New York’s big guns, Mark Messier and Brian Leetch.

“We scored the key goals when the team needed us to,” said Lemieux, who has 10 goals in 11 playoff games, as does Jagr.

Goalie Ken Wregget stopped 29 of 32 shots as Pittsburgh eliminated New York for the third time since 1989.

The victory was not without cost as the Penguins lost center Ron Francis, the NHL’s fourth-leading scorer, because of a broken left foot.

Francis, who had 119 points this season, was struck on the foot by a shot in the first period. He was in a cast by the end of the game and is not expected back even if Pittsburgh reaches the Stanley Cup finals.

Colorado 4, Chicago 1--Valeri Kamensky scored two goals, and Patrick Roy had a shutout until the final five minutes as the Avalanche beat the Blackhawks at Denver to move within one game of the Western Conference finals.

Colorado leads the best-of-seven semifinal series, 3-2.