Favored Pens Pull Even

NHL

Mario Lemieux was on his back, and the Pittsburgh Penguins were on the critical list. Just as quickly, Lemieux got well - and the Penguins got even.

The Penguins changed goaltenders and game plans, shook off Lemieux’s sudden illness and held on to beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 Monday night in Pittsburgh to tie the Eastern Conference finals at a game apiece.

Tom Barrasso, strengthening Pittsburgh’s gambling defense with his puck-handling skills, stopped 30 shots in his first start since April 24. The biggest was a sprawling stop of a Bill Lindsay breakaway with three minutes remaining that would have tied it.

The Penguins needed every save as Lemieux spent the first 10 minutes of the second period taking intravenous fluids to combat the stomach flu. He returned to set up one goal and score another as the Penguins rebounded from Florida’s convincing 5-1 victory in Game 1.

“It was dehydration. It was pretty bad … I was real tired and dizzy, but once I got (the treatments) I felt good and was able to come back,” Lemieux said.

After he did, Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr - held scoreless in the same game for only the fourth time Saturday - finally beat playoff star John Vanbiesbrouck for goals as Pittsburgh opened leads of 2-0 and 3-1.

Before that, Sergei Zubov awakened Pittsburgh’s slumping power play with a tie-breaking goal as the Penguins, in danger of falling behind 2-0 in the series, frantically pressed to get the early lead even without Lemieux and the injured Ron Francis on the ice.

“We know how important it is for us to get the lead, especially against a defense like they’ve got,” said Lemieux, who scored his 11th playoff goal. “It was important to finally score some goals, the way Vanbiesbrouck is playing.”

Barrasso, an almost forgotten man since being replaced by Ken Wregget in Pittsburgh’s momentum-shifting four-overtime victory over Washington in the first round, shut out Florida for two periods before Ray Sheppard and Lindsay scored in the third period.

“Barrasso is better at handling the puck, he got the puck out of their zone quite a few times,” Panthers coach Doug MacLean said. “He makes it harder for us to generate forechecking, so we’ll have to take a look at (countering) that.”

Penguins 3, Panthers 2

Florida 0 0 2 - 2

Pittsburgh 0 2 1 - 3

First period-None. Second period-1, Pittsburgh, Zubov 1, 7:21 (pp). 2, Pittsburgh, Jagr 11 (Lemieux, Nedved), 13:57 (pp). Third period-3, Floirda, Sheppard 6 (Jovanovski, Lowry), :29. 4, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 11 (Tamer, Nedved), 8:12. 5, Florida, Lindsay 4 (Garpenlov, Warrener), 12:19.

Shots on goal-Florida 11-10-11-32. Pittsburgh 9-16-13-38.Power-play opp.-Florida 0 of 5; Pittsburgh 2 of 5.Goalies-Florida, Vanbiesbrouck 9-4 (38 shots-35 saves). Pittsburgh, Barrasso 2-2 (32-30).A-17,181 (17,181).

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Tonight’s game Colorado at Detriot, 4:30 (ESPN)