Penguins Just Love Wide Open Spaces

Open ice, open teammates, a more wide-open style of play. No wonder Mario Lemieux likes overtime so much.

Lemieux set up Shawn Heins’ first goal in nearly 2 1/2 years, giving the Pittsburgh Penguins a 2-1 victory over St. Louis at Pittsburgh on Saturday -- their second overtime win in three games.

Dominating play in overtime, the Penguins missed several good scoring chances before Heins got the puck to Lemieux in the lower left circle. Lemieux gave it right back for Heins’ backhander from the edge of the circle with 26.3 seconds left.

“There’s more open ice in overtime, more opportunities to make plays,” Lemieux said. “Maybe this will help get these [new] guys going, help get them some confident.”

Both Pittsburgh goals -- Rico Fata also scored -- came from players who hadn’t scored a goal since being traded to Pittsburgh earlier this month.

Lemieux scored the winning overtime goal himself Tuesday night against Vancouver, helping Pittsburgh go 2-1 so far on what he called a make or break five-game home stand.

*

Vancouver 3, Edmonton 2 -- Brendan Morrison scored in overtime at Edmonton, Canada, to help the Canucks extend their club-record unbeaten streak to 12 games (8-0-4-0). Vancouver moved within two points of first-place Dallas in the Western Conference.

*

Detroit 5, Washington 1 -- Mathieu Dandenault and Pavel Datsyuk each had a goal and an assist to lead the Red Wings at Washington. Detroit is 5-0-0-1 in its last six games.

*

Toronto 5, Montreal 3 -- Tie Domi, Nik Antropov and Gary Roberts scored late in the third period at Montreal to help the Maple Leafs extend their winning streak to five games.

*

Ottawa 4, Nashville 0 -- Patrick Lalime made 18 saves for his NHL-leading eighth shutout of the season and Magnus Arvedson scored two goals to lead the Senators at Ottawa.

*

Florida 4, Philadelphia 2 -- Roberto Luongo made 44 saves and Marcus Nilson, Matt Cullen and Kristian Huselius scored third-period goals at Philadelphia to help the Panthers end the Flyers’ four-game unbeaten streak.