Edmonton 3 at Pittsburgh 4 OT
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EDMONTON 1 1 1 0 --3
PITTSBURGH 1 2 0 1 --4
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FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Edmonton, Daniel Cleary 4 (Jani Rita, Todd
Marchant),1:27. 2, Pittsburgh, Mikael Samuelsson 10 (power play)
(Mario Lemieux, Rico Fata)17:49. Penalties: J Niinimaa, Edm
(hooking), 9:33; J Niinimaa, Edm (roughing), 16:41; J Hedberg, Pit
(delay of game served by S Mckenna), 18:09; K Manderville, Pit (high
sticking), 19:57.
SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 3, Pittsburgh, Tomas Surovy 2 (Ville
Nieminen), 3:22. 4, Edmonton, Todd Marchant 13 (power play) (Brian
Swanson, Anson Carter)7:13. 5, Pittsburgh, Ville Nieminen 8 (Dick
Tarnstrom, Shawn Heins),8:31. Penalties: R Robitaille, Pit (obstr
hooking), 6:10; M Bergevin, Pit (high sticking), 6:21; J Niinimaa, Edm
(obstr hooking), 6:31; S Mckenna, Pit (major fighting), 9:38; G
Laraque, Edm (major fighting), 9:38; A Semenov, Edm (high sticking),
15:55; D Tarnstrom, Pit (holding), 18:51.
THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 6, Edmonton, Anson Carter 22 (power play)
(Janne Niinimaa, Marty Reasoner)17:51. Penalties: Bench, Pit (too
many men served by M Sivek), 17:03.
OVERTIME -- Scoring: 7, Pittsburgh, Mario Lemieux 22 (power play)
(Rico Fata, Dick Tarnstrom)1:35. Penalties: A Semenov, Edm
(tripping), 0:53.
Shots on goal:
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EDMONTON 5 15 16 0 --36
PITTSBURGH 10 5 5 2 --22
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Power-play Conversions: EDM - 2 of 6, PIT - 2 of 5. Goalies :
Edmonton, Tommy Salo (22 shots, 18 saves; record: 20-20-6).
Pittsburgh, Johan Hedberg (36 shots, 33 saves; record: 14-12-3). A:
13,552. Referees: Craig Spada, Paul Devorski. Linesmen: Brad
Kovachik, Derek Nansen.
INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATISTICS
EDMONTON PITTSBURGH
G A +/- Shots G A +/- Shots
S Horcoff 0 0 -1 0 V Nieminen 1 1 +2 2
J Rita 0 1 +1 1 W Primeau 0 0 even 3
E Moreau 0 0 -1 0 S Donovan 0 0 even 3
M Reasoner 0 1 even 4 R Fata 0 2 -1 1
E Brewer 0 0 -2 2 R Robitaille 0 0 +2 2
A Carter 1 1 -1 7 S McKenna 0 0 even 0
S Staios 0 0 +1 2 I Moran 0 0 even 1
T Marchant 1 1 +1 2 M Bergevin 0 0 even 0
G Laraque 0 0 even 0 K Manderville 0 0 even 0
J Chimera 0 0 even 3 M Rozsival 0 0 even 0
S Ferguson 0 0 even 0 D Tarnstrom 0 2 even 3
F Pisani 0 0 even 0 M Samuelsson 1 0 -1 2
B Swanson 0 1 even 3 J Bouchard 0 0 -1 1
J Niinimaa 0 1 even 5 T Surovy 1 0 +2 1
A Semenov 0 0 -2 0 M Sivek 0 0 even 0
D Cleary 1 0 +1 7 S Heins 0 1 +2 0
A Pisa 0 0 even 0 M Lemieux 1 1 -1 3
M Comrie 0 0 -2 0 H Jonsson 0 0 +1 0
R Smyth SHOULDER J Pushor HEALTHY
M York INFLUENZA J Hrdina SHOULDER
A Hemsky INFLUENZA M Kraft HEALTHY
PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Mario Lemieux scored a power-play goal
95 seconds into overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins their
second straight win, 4-3 over the Edmonton Oilers.
Lemieux took a slap shot from just above the right faceoff dot
and easily beat goaltender Tommy Salo to the stick side for his
fourth game-winner of the season. It was his 22nd goal and gave
him a league-leading 77 points.
"We were a little bit guilty of giving Mario that shot at the
end," Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said. "Mario hammered it,
pulverized the thing. If it didn't hit Tommy, it's going to go
in."
Defenseman Marc Bergevin had an excellent scoring chance in the
opening minute of overtime but missed the net. Following the
play, Pittsburgh's Randy Robitaille drew a tripping penalty on
rookie defenseman Alexei Semenov that set up the decisive power
play.
"I thought it was a (terrible) call," Semenov said. "The ref
could have called so many penalties against them. I didn't
think it was a penalty."
Anson Carter sent the game to overtime with a power-play goal
with 2:09 left in regulation, but his redirection of defenseman
Janne Niinimaa's drive was not enough to give Edmonton its first
win at Mellon Arena in 10 years.
"Carter made a great deflection," Penguins coach Rick Kehoe
said. "He was in front. It wasn't that hard of a shot. It was
to the net and he did his job directing it in."
The Oilers fell to 0-5-2-1 here since February 18, 1993.
Carter's goal was Edmonton's second power-play tally of the game
after Todd Marchant scored 7:13 into the second period. The
Oilers had been 3-for-53 with the man advantage in the previous
12 games.
Ville Nieminen, who had an assist on rookie Tomas Surovy's goal
3:22 into the second period, broke a 2-2 tie just over five
minutes later on a sharp-angle shot from the right side. After
defenseman Dick Tarnstrom's snap shot went wide and bounced off
the end boards, Salo left enough of the net open for Nieminen to
score his eighth goal.
"I got some opportunities today," said Nieminen, who also scored
in Saturday's 4-1 victory at New Jersey. "If we can keep this
line playing this way, we will be able to help the rest of the
team."
"It's always important to get goals from the second and third
line," Lemieux added. "They've picked it up the last couple of
games."
Daniel Cleary got the Oilers off to a good start when he scored
87 seconds into the game on a strange play. He passed off the
boards to the slot, where Marchant fanned on a shot but got the
puck past Johan Hedberg to put Edmonton on the board.
Cleary got a chance to play on the Oilers' top line in place of
Mike York, who sat out with a stomach virus. Rookie Jani Rita
added his first NHL assist on Cleary's goal.
Despite the loss, Edmonton moved four points ahead of Chicago
for the final Western Conference playoff berth.
"We're at the point in the season where we need every point we
can get," MacTavish said. "Getting one is nice, but it would
have been better to get two. We need two points out of as many
games as we can get."
Mikael Samuelsson, acquired last week as part of the trade that
sent Alexei Kovalev to the New York Rangers, scored his second
goal in as many games on a power play with 2:11 left in the
first period. Lemieux earned his league-leading 55th assist
with a perfect pass from the top of the left circle.
With 10 goals, Samuelsson joined Lemieux as the only active
Penguins who have scored in double figures. Kovalev had 27
goals before he was traded, while Martin Straka is on injured
reserve and Jan Hrdina was scratched with a hip injury.
Pittsburgh stopped a three-game home losing streak and has
posted consecutive wnis for the first time since January 13-17.