Penguins’ Barnes Is the Star

The Montreal Canadiens spent all week working on a gimmick defense to contain Jaromir Jagr. Maybe they should have worried more about the other two guys on his line.

Stu Barnes scored twice--once when Montreal’s Vladimir Malakhov knocked the puck into his own net--and had an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins evened their first-ever playoff series against the Canadiens by winning, 4-1, Saturday night at Pittsburgh.

“Sometimes he gets overlooked playing with Jagr and [Ron] Francis, but Barnes is a big part of their team and he showed it,” Montreal’s Shayne Corson said.

Barnes, often finding himself with open ice as Montreal’s three-defenseman line occupied itself with Jagr, the NHL scoring champion, also set up Pittsburgh’s first goal as the Penguins followed a familiar playoff pattern.

They are 8-1 in Game 2 when they lose Game 1, as they have in seven of their last nine playoff series.

“We knew we had to come out of here with at least one win after losing Game 1,” said forward Robbie Brown, whose big hits on Pittsburgh’s checking line helped swing the momentum in the second period. “We couldn’t go up there behind 2-0. We felt when the series started it would go seven games, and we still do.”

NHL Notes

With the Buffalo Sabres getting the day off today before Game 3 of their series with the Philadelphia Flyers Monday, there was talk Saturday of how Sabres Sabres Rob Ray and Matthew Barnaby let their emotions get the best of them after they were ejected from Friday night’s 3-2 loss. After a controversial penalty led to John LeClair’s winning power-play goal late in the game, Ray did a hatchet job on a curtain leading to the dressing room, then smashed his stick. Barnaby then picked it up and smashed it some more. Ray also kicked a hole in an electric fan and Barnaby argued with fans. How much damage did they do? “We’ll find out when we get the bill for it,” Ray said. “Our playoff bonuses will probably be signed over and sent back to Philly. Ah, well, it was worth it.”

Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock said emotions are running high heading into Game 3 tonight with San Jose. The Stars are not too happy about losing leading scorer Joe Nieuwendyk because of a knee injury in Game 1 and then having Mike Modano suffer a mild concussion in Game 2.