Jagr’s Worth His Weight in Goals to Penguins, 3-2

Jaromir Jagr showed the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night why he’s worth every penny of a $48-million contract he’s about to sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Jagr scored a goal early to get Pittsburgh going and set up another to kill a New Jersey rally in leading the Penguins to a 3-2 win over the Devils at East Rutherford, N.J.

“When he is on top of his game like he was tonight, all you can say is ‘Woo,’ ” Devil center Bobby Holik said. “Who’s going to stop him?”

The Devils certainly didn’t in one of the final games Jagr will play under his old contract.

It was a bad game for the Devils, who only showed up for the third period.

Scott Niedermayer got them within a goal at 7:47, but Penguin goaltender Tom Barrasso made five big saves down the stretch to send New Jersey to only its seventh loss at home in 27 games.

Barrasso’s best save was a pad stop on a redirection in front by Holik with 8:35 to play.

“It looked like they had a sure goal to tie it and I was able to get my leg on it,” Barrasso said. “Coming down the stretch that’s what you play for, at least what I do. To be in a situation like that where the game is on the line and you see if you can rise to the occasion.”

Philadelphia 4, New York Rangers 3--John LeClair scored his 34th goal and assisted on another to lead the Flyers at New York.

LeClair opened the scoring with a power-play goal 3:33 into the game. Ranger goaltender Mike Richter lost sight of the puck behind his net and Eric Lindros passed it out front to LeClair, who converted from close range.

Pat LaFontaine registered his 1,000th point with his 19th goal on a power play at 8:53 of the third period.

Toronto 3, Chicago 0--Felix Potvin stopped 23 shots at Chicago for his second shutout in as many nights.

The Maple Leafs got goals from Mats Sundin, Mathieu Schneider and rookie Yannick Tremblay, who recorded his first NHL goal.

Potvin, who had backstopped the Maple Leafs to a 3-0 win at Detroit on Wednesday, also was in goal the last time Toronto posted back-to-back shutouts, April 26 and 28, 1994 in an opening-round playoff series against the Blackhawks.

Carolina 4, Ottawa 2--Jeff O’Neill scored short-handed and power-play goals to lead the Hurricanes at Kanata, Canada.

O’Neill’s power-play goal at 2:26 of the second period--a hard, low shot off the post to the left of goaltender Damian Rhodes--turned out to be the winner.

Kevin Haller and Sami Kapanen also scored for Carolina, last in the Northeast Division.

Alexei Yashin and newly acquired Pat Falloon scored for the Senators, who are 1-5-4 in their last 10 games.

New York Islanders 3, St. Louis 3--Zigmund Palffy scored his 23rd goal off a steal with 1:51 left in regulation to help the Islanders salvage a tie at St. Louis.

Geoff Courtnall scored twice in a 32-second span early in the third period to give the Blues, who are in an 0-3-1 slump, the lead. Palffy took the puck away from St. Louis defenseman Rudy Poeschek in the neutral zone and streaked in alone before beating Grant Fuhr with a slap shot.

Palffy has three goals in his last two games for New York, which is in a 1-11-2 slump, but are 1-2-2 since Coach Rick Bowness got a win-or-else ultimatum from General Manager Mike Milbury.