Rule Enforcement Is Suiting Lemieux Fine

So far, Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins are enjoying the NHL’s newly enforced crackdown on obstruction as much as any team in the league.

Lemieux set up three goals, Aleksey Morozov scored his fifth goal in three games and the Penguins held on to win their third in a row, beating the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-2, Wednesday night at Pittsburgh.

Morozov left late in the first period and received 50 stitches to close a cut in his left ear, but it didn’t prevent the Penguins’ new top line of Morozov, Lemieux and Alexei Kovalev from piling on more points.

The line has scored 10 of the 14 goals by the Penguins and has produced 25 points. Randy Robitaille also scored after replacing Morozov against the Thrashers.

The teams combined for 14 power plays, eight by Pittsburgh, as the league’s enforcement of obstruction rules again made special teams play important.

“They’re trying to give the game back to the great players and that’s the way it should be,” said Lemieux, who has 10 points in three games. “You can make plays out there and it’s making it exciting for everybody.”

Atlanta trailed, 3-0, then rallied with third-period goals by Ilya Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley before falling to 0-11-0-2 against Pittsburgh since joining the league.

“That was the way we are supposed to start the game,” Atlanta Coach Curt Fraser said. “When we got out there, our eyes were as big as saucers watching Lemieux do whatever he wanted out there. We talked all day about it, prepared for it and when we got out there, we didn’t do it.”

Boston 6, Vancouver 3 -- Glen Murray scored twice and assisted on the go-ahead goal, and the Bruins rallied three times at Vancouver, Canada.

P.J. Axelsson, Marty McInnis and Joe Thornton also scored for the Bruins.

Harold Druken, Todd Bertuzzi and Daniel Sedin scored for the Canucks, who wrapped up a three-game homestand with two losses in.

The Bruins took the lead for good when Sergei Samsonov scored with 2:08 left in the second period.

Samsonov, alone in the slot, one-timed Joe Thornton’s pass from behind the net past Dan Cloutier.