Lemieux Erases Blues With 5 Goals

Forget what they told you in math class: 66 was greater than 99 Tuesday night.

Mario Lemieux had five goals and two assists to dominate his first game against Wayne Gretzky in more than three years and lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to an 8-4 win over the St. Louis Blues in Pittsburgh.

“It was Mario’s show, no question about that,” Blues coach Mike Keenan said. “He put on quite a spectacle tonight.”

Lemieux, playing his first game since his wife delivered a premature baby on Sunday, notched his sixth hat trick of the season and 37th of his career. He fell one goal short of tying the modern NHL record, last accomplished by Darryl Sittler of Toronto in 1976.

Gretzky had one assist for the Blues, who are 5-6-2 since he was acquired from Los Angeles on Feb. 27.

“Tonight was very special,” said Lemieux, who passed Guy Lafleur for 11th on the NHL career points list with 1,357. “I was ready to play early. I felt very good and everything went in for me. I could have had a couple more. A night like that doesn’t happen too often.”

Lemieux’s wife, Nathalie, gave birth to their third child on Sunday. The 2-pound, 5-ounce boy was three months early and is expected to remain on a respirator for a few days.

“The baby’s doing great, my wife is doing great, so now I can go back and think about hockey and do my job,” Lemieux said.

Lemieux, who scored five goals twice before in his career, leads the league in goals (63) and points (146). He also earned his 800th career assist on on Brad Lauer’s third-period goal.

It was the 21st Lemieux-Gretzky matchup since Lemieux came into the league in 1984 and the first since Nov. 6, 1993. The Penguins are 7-13-1 in those games.

Keenan broke up the combination of Gretzky and Brett Hull during the game.

“Brett hasn’t done much with Wayne,” Keenan said. “Prior to the (Gretzky) trade we were playing real well and real hard. It just hasn’t worked out very well. Brett said he’s confused so we’ll try him with (Peter) Zezel.”

St. Louis goalie Grant Fuhr started his 74th consecutive game, one short of the NHL record he set with Edmonton in 1987-88.

Penguins 8, Blues 4

St. Louis 2 1 1 - 4

Pittsburgh 3 2 3 - 8

First period-1, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 59 (Nedved, Leroux), 3:35. 2, Pittsburgh, Smolinski 24 (Lemieux, Joseph), 11:32 (pp). 3, St. Louis, Hull 41 (Pronger, Olsson), 13:02 (pp). 4, St. Louis, Matteau 11 (Pearson), 14:33. 5, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 60 (Francis, Zubov), 15:37 (pp).

Second period-6, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 61 (Nedved, Jagr), 8:43 (pp). 7, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 62, 11:15 (sh). 8, St. Louis, Pronger 7 (Olsson, Gretzky), 12:05 (pp).

Third period-9, St. Louis, Pearson 6 (Matteau, MacTavish), 3:05. 10, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 63 (Francis, McLlwain), 6:08. 11, Pittsburgh, Lauer 3 (Miller, Lemieux), 11:35. 12, Pittsburgh, Nedved 40 (Francis, Zubov), 16:04 (pp).

Shots on goal-St. Louis 12-8-11-31. Pittsburgh 13-13-13-39.Power-play opp.-St. Louis 2 of 6; Pittsburgh 4 of 9.Goalies-St. Louis, Fuhr (7 shots-5 saves), Casey 1-1-0 (11:32 first, 32-26). Pittsburgh, Wregget 18-12-2 (31-27).A-17,300 (17,181).

Capitals 7, Islanders 1

Uniondale, N.Y.

Peter Bondra scored three straight goals in a 4:21 span late in the third period as Washington blew open a close game with a five-goal third period en route to victory over New York.

Washington 1 1 5 - 7

N.Y. Islanders 0 1 0 - 1

First period-1, Washington, Krygier 14 (Tinordi, Gonchar), 18:50.

Second period-2, Washington, Gonchar 13 (Pivonka, Konowalchuk), 7:25 (pp). 3, New York, Palffy 38 (Hendrickson), 16:10.

Third period-4, Washington, Konowalchuk 23 (Gonchar, Juneau), 5:26 (pp). 5, Washington, Peake 17 (Juneau), 8:11. 6, Washington, Bondra 42 (Ustorf, Pivonka), 13:22. 7, Washington, Bondra 43 (Pivonka, Cote), 14:19. 8, Washington, Bondra 44 (Pivonka, Gonchar), 17:43.

Shots on goal-Washington 19-11-15-45. New York 9-13-5-26.Power-play opp.-Washington 2 of 5; New York 0 of 6.Goalies-Washington, Carey 30-21-8 (26 shots-25 saves). New York, Soderstrom 10-21-6 (45-38).A-10,580 (16,297).

Devils 6, Lightning 4

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Stephane Richer scored three times and rookie Steve Sullivan scored the go-ahead goal with 5:15 remaining, leading New Jersey over Tampa Bay.

New Jersey 1 3 2 - 6

Tampa Bay 1 2 1 - 4

First period-1, New Jersey, Rolston 13, :49. 2, Tampa Bay, Wiemer 9 (Gratton, Zamuner), 15:19.

Second period-3, Tampa Bay, Burr 13 (Shaw, Cullen), 1:05. 4, New Jersey, Richer 17, 6:57. 5, New Jersey, Richer 18 (Sullivan, Niedermayer), 12:06 (pp). 6, New Jersey, McKay 10 (Andreychuk, Holik), 16:53. 7, Tampa Bay, Bradley 21 (Hamrlik), 19:45 (pp).

Third period-8, Tampa Bay, Bradley 22 (Hamrlik, Zamuner), :23. 9, New Jersey, Sullivan 5 (McKay, Andreychuk), 14:45. 10, New Jersey, Richer 19, 19:54 (en).

Shots on goal-New Jersey 14-12-9-35. Tampa Bay 15-9-14-38.Power-play opp.-New Jersey 1 of 1; Tampa Bay 1 of 4.Goalies-New Jersey, Brodeur 31-25-11 (38 shots-34 saves). Tampa Bay, Puppa 24-14-8 (34-29).A-18,200 (28,000).

Jets 8, Stars 2

Dallas

Keith Tkachuk had the first four-goal game of his career and Winnipeg took over sole possession of the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot with a win over Dallas.

Winnipeg 2 3 3 - 8

Dallas 0 0 2 - 2

First period-1, Winnipeg, Tkachuk 44 (Janney, Drake), :26. 2, Winnipeg, Drake 13 (Maciver, Numminen), 3:20 (pp).

Second period-3, Winnipeg, Korolev 18 (Numminen), :59. 4, Winnipeg, Korolev 19 (Eastwood, Numminen), 1:11. 5, Winnipeg, Drake 14 (Tkachuk), 5:41.

Third period-6, Winnipeg, Tkachuk 45, 3:02 (sh). 7, Dallas, Ludwig 1 (Gilchrist), 4:36. 8, Dallas, Fedyk 18 (Ledyard, Matvichuk), 11:44. 9, Winnipeg, Tkachuk 46 (Janney), 13:14. 10, Winnipeg, Tkachuk 47 (Drake, Janney), 13:30.

Shots on goal-Winnipeg 8-9-9-26. Dallas 10-11-9-30.Power-play opp.-Winnipeg 1 of 4; Dallas 0 of 5.Goalies-Winnipeg, Khabibulin 21-17-2 (30 shots-28 saves). Dallas, Moog 12-16-6 (11-7), Wakaluk (1:11 second, 15-11).A-16,184 (16,924).