Jagr Has More Tears Than Goals in Return

This isn’t how Pittsburgh remembers Jaromir Jagr--not wearing the Penguins’ colors, not hearing all cheers, not scoring goals.

A teary-eyed Jagr was held to an assist in his return to Pittsburgh, and defensemen Darius Kasparaitis and Andrew Ference scored 1:12 apart as the Penguins held on for a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals on Friday night.

Jagr, missing a front tooth from a Wednesday night collision with teammate Ulf Dahlen’s stick, couldn’t convert a couple of good scoring chances on what clearly was an emotional night. He set up Peter Bondra’s third-period goal.

The Penguins, who ended a four-game losing streak, led, 4-1, before Bondra and Sergei Gonchar scored power-play goals slightly fewer than three minutes apart midway through the period.

Jagr, the second-best player in Penguin history to Mario Lemieux, was booed whenever he touched the puck in the first period, but received a loud standing ovation after a video tribute.

The scoreboard tribute included replays of some of Jagr’s highlight goals and left him in tears on the bench, and he acknowledged the cheers with a wave of his glove.

Explaining his emotional reaction, Jagr said, “Well, I was here for 11 years; I came here when I was 18, and we had a lot of great years. It was a lot of fun in the dressing room and everything was loose. You don’t feel like you have to go to work to play hockey in Pittsburgh.”

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New York Islanders 2, New York Rangers 1--Mats Lindgren and Michael Peca scored first-period goals for the Islanders at Madison Square Garden.

Detroit 3, San Jose 0--Dominik Hasek picked up his second shutout of the season and Steve Yzerman had a goal and an assist at Detroit as the Red Wings ended the Sharks’ 10-game unbeaten streak.

Hasek has given up only six goals in his last six starts.

Toronto 3, Buffalo 3--Slava Kozlov scored the final goal with 6:15 left and had two assists for the Sabres at Buffalo, N.Y.

Kozlov knocked in the rebound of Jason Woolley’s shot on a power play to tie the score and record a point for the ninth game in 10 since he returned from a one-game benching.

Carolina 5, Atlanta 4--Rookie Erik Cole completed his first three-goal game with the overtime winner at Raleigh, N.C.

Cole, who had never scored more than one goal in an NHL game, beat Milan Hnilicka to the glove side with 3:32 left after Rod Brind’Amour took a shot off a faceoff.

Tampa Bay 4, St. Louis 3--Vincent Lecavalier scored two goals, including the game-winner 3:29 into overtime at Tampa, Fla.

Calgary 2, Colorado 2--Rob Niedermayer scored on a rebound at 17:38 of the third period at Denver, lifting the Flames into a tie.

Chicago 5, Edmonton 1--Igor Korolev scored twice and Phil Housley added a goal and an assist at Chicago as the Blackhawks extended their winning streak to three games.