Lemieux Finds Scoring Touch Against Panthers

Mario Lemieux didn’t have much success against the Florida Panthers in last season’s playoffs.

He was better Tuesday night, scoring the last two goals of the game to lead the Penguins to a 4-2 victory at Pittsburgh.

Lemieux scored his 40th goal to break a tie with 6:27 left in the third period, then added an empty-netter to end a four-game losing streak for the Penguins.

Last spring, Lemieux had only one goal in seven games as the Penguins fell to the Panthers in the Eastern Conference finals.

Lemieux scored his 28th goal against John Vanbiesbrouck, his highest total against any goalie. As a power play expired, Lemieux one-timed Jason Woolley’s pass from the bottom of the left circle.

Buffalo 5, Calgary 5--Goaltender Dominik Hasek, of all people, let a two-goal lead slip away in the final two minutes at Buffalo, as the Flames’ Ron Stern and Aaron Gavey scored 27 seconds apart.

“It was right there for us to take,” Sabre defenseman Garry Galley said. “It felt like a loss. Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe it will wake us up a little bit.”

The Sabres had built a two-goal lead on goals by Michael Peca and Matthew Barnaby earlier in the period before Stern cut the margin to 5-4 at 18:06 off a rebound in front of Hasek.

Gavey scored moments later after the Sabres were unable to clear the puck from their own zone. Gavey won a scramble in front of the net and sent the game into overtime with a wrist shot at 18:33.

Ottawa 6, Washington 1--Ron Tugnutt made 31 saves at Landover, Md., in winning his third game of the season against the Capitals.

Heading into this season, Tugnutt had a 2-6-1 record against Washington. He is now 3-0 and has allowed only one goal in each of the victories. He has stopped 83 of 86 shots by the Capitals.

The Senators and Capitals are now tied for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot.

Colorado 3, Boston 2--Claude Lemieux scored a power-play goal with 3.8 seconds left in overtime at Denver as the Avalanche won its fourth in a row.

Peter Forsberg took a shot that was stopped by Bill Ranford, but Lemieux sent the rebound back for his fifth goal.

The Bruins lost their fourth straight.

Toronto 6, Vancouver 5--Doug Gilmour and Sergei Berezin each scored two goals to pace the Maple Leafs at Vancouver.

The subject of much trade talk recently, the veteran Gilmour put the Maple Leafs in command with a tremendous individual effort for his second goal of the game late in the second period.

San Jose 3, Dallas 1--Tony Granato scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as the Sharks beat the Stars at San Jose.

San Jose goaltender Kelly Hrudey made 29 saves as the Stars outshot the Sharks, 30-19.