Wild Stops Lemieux, Penguins

Jamie McLennan isn’t ready to say his luck has turned, but stopping Mario Lemieux would boost any goaltender’s confidence.

Lemieux, playing despite back pain, was held scoreless in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 4-2 loss Sunday to McLennan and the Minnesota Wild at St. Paul, Minn. It was only the second time in 19 games Lemieux has gone without a point since ending his 3 1/2-year retirement Dec. 27.

McLennan is 4-14-6, despite a 2.42 goals-against-average. He stopped 25 shots and won back-to-back games for the first time.

“I wouldn’t go overboard,” McLennan said. “But I would hope my luck has turned. It’s something you try to be patient with. We lost a lot of one-goal games. Now, maybe our confidence has turned.”

Lemieux, was limited to three shots in 26 minutes.

“I felt OK out there, but obviously I’m not able to do some of the things I normally do,” Lemieux said. “I have to work with what I have. In the second period I started to loosen up. A couple of painkillers never hurt.”

The Wild, coming off a 2-1 victory Friday at Dallas, completed the most impressive back-to-back victories of its expansion season. The Wild is 7-2-0-1 in its last 10 games.

St. Louis 3, Dallas 3--Sergei Zubov scored the Stars’ third power-play goal of the game with 11:36 left in regulation as they rallied from a two-goal deficit at Dallas.

The Blues had a good scoring opportunity 30 seconds into overtime, but Scott Young’s shot hit the goal post. The Blues came back from a 1-0 deficit behind consecutive second-period goals by Pierre Turgeon, Scott Mellanby and Jochen Hecht.

Mellanby, acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers on Friday, was making his debut with the Blues.

New Jersey 1, New York Rangers 1--The Devils extended their unbeaten streak against the Rangers to 22 games with a tie at New York. The Rangers have not beaten their cross-river rival during the regular season since Jan. 12, 1997, going 0-14-8. They have tied twice in three games this season.

Phoenix 3, Chicago 2--Sean Burke stopped 25 shots at Phoenix to help the Coyotes hand the Blackhawks their fourth loss in six games. Steve Sullivan, Travis Green and Jeremy Roenick scored for the Coyotes, who had a loss and a tie against Chicago this season.

Montreal 4, Buffalo 3--Patrick Poulin scored twice in four minutes in the third period for the Canadiens at Buffalo. It was the first time Montreal has overcome a third-period deficit this season. The Canadiens were 0-24-3-1 when trailing after two periods.

Around the League

Defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev of the Blackhawks was suspended for two games by the NHL for hitting the San Jose Sharks’ Matt Bradley on Saturday night. Karpovtsev bloodied Bradley’s nose during the third period of Chicago’s 3-2 loss. Karpovtsev received a five-minute major penalty for elbowing and a game misconduct. . . . The Dallas Stars activated right wings Mike Keane and Jamie Langenbrunner from the injured list. Keane was put on injured reserve Jan. 25, eight days after being struck by a shot in a game against Nashville and suffering a fractured ankle. Langenbrunner had surgery Dec. 28 to repair a torn abdominal muscle.