Selanne’s Goal Not Quite Enough

Defenseman Jamie Heward scored a power-play goal and assisted on another to lead the expansion Nashville Predators to a 2-1 victory over the Ducks in an exhibition at Cincinnati.

Heward helped set up Nashville’s first goal and scored the game-winner while the Predators had a man advantage early in the second period.

Teemu Selanne, who tied for the NHL lead in goals last season, scored early in the third period for Anaheim.

AROUND THE LEAGUE / Lemieux-Penguin Dispute at Issue

The Pittsburgh Penguins and former All-Star center Mario Lemieux agreed to talk about their $33-million contract dispute instead of arbitrating it and settled some of their differences.

The team said that there had been agreement on “several significant issues” in 1 1/2 days of talks.

Lemieux charged that Roger Marino, while owning half the team but essentially controlling all of it, was cheating him out of the rest of the $42-million deal he had signed with the other co-owner, Howard Baldwin, in 1992.

The deal called for Lemieux to be paid whether or not he played hockey. A back injury and cancer of the lymph nodes led to his retirement after the 1996-97 season.

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The Dallas Stars’ new top line of Brett Hull, Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen was too much for the Phoenix Coyotes. Hull had two goals and an assist to lead Stars to a 2-1 exhibition victory at Dallas.

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In other top performances, Josef Beranek scored two goals to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Flames at Edmonton. Beranek has five goals and 10 points in eight exhibitions. . . . Oleg Kvasha scored two goals for the Florida Panthers in a 3-2 victory over Tampa Bay at Jacksonville, Fla. . . . Jaromir Jagr scored his first two goals of the exhibition season in the third period to give the Penguins a 3-3 tie with the Colorado Avalanche at Pittsburgh.