Penguins Fans Bid Farewell To Lemieux

There were cheers and tears, multiple standing ovations and a emotional outpouring that, by the end, swept up an entire arena. All that was missing was a Mario Lemieux goal.

Lemieux took a flurry of shots but was held without a goal in his final regular-season home game as the Pittsburgh Penguins, edging closer to home-ice advantage in the playoffs, beat the Boston Bruins 3-1 Tuesday night.

“It was a great night, and I certainly had enough chances to score my 50th,” said Lemieux, who needs one more goal for his sixth 50-goal season. “I had some wide-open nets and, after I shot it wide a few times, I started pressing and trying too hard.”

The Penguins, 4-0-1 since Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis returned from injury layoffs, forged a tie with the New York Rangers for fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings and moved within one point of fourth-place Florida.

Elsewhere

At Tampa, Fla., Martin Brodeur’s shutout streak ended at three games, but the New Jersey Devils tied the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-2 to extend their lead in the Eastern Conference race to two points.

At Calgary, Alberta, Tomas Sandstrom scored with nine seconds left in overtime, giving Detroit a 3-2 victory over Calgary and dimming the Flames’ playoff chances.

Habs set attendance mark

Montreal’s new 21,273-seat Molson Centre helped the Canadiens establish a National Hockey League home attendance record this season, the league said.

A sellout crowd for Monday night’s win over the New York Islanders raised the team’s attendance mark to 839,799 for 40 games. The total surpassed last year’s mark of 837,021 set by the Chicago Blackhawks while playing in the new 20,500-seat United Center.