PITTSBURGH, PENNSLYVANNIA - Mario Lemieux set up three goals and the Pittsburgh Penguins, getting a big lift from the NHL's crackdown on obstruction, won their third straight by beating the Atlanta Thrashers 3-2 on Wednesday night.
Aleksey Morozov scored his fifth goal in three games before needing 50 stitches to close a cut in his left ear as the Penguins' new top line of Morozov, Lemieux and Alexei Kovalev kept piling on the points.
Since being shut out 6-0 by Toronto in their opener, the Penguins coming off a 28-win season that was their worst in 17 years have beaten the Rangers, Maple Leafs and Thrashers by a combined 14-6.
The Morozov-Lemieux-Kovalev line has scored 10 of the 14 goals while totaling 25 points in three games. Randy Robitaille also scored after replacing the injured Morozov on the top line.
Atlanta fell behind 3-0, then tried to rally with third-period goals by Ilya Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley, but still fell to 0-11-0-2 against Pittsburgh since joining the NHL.
The three-game winning streak is Pittsburgh's longest since a six-game run in January, during Lemieux's only productive stretch of an injury-ruined season in which he scored only six goals.
Lemieux didn't get a goal after scoring four in his previous two games, but his playmaking was responsible for every Penguins score.
Morozov put the Penguins up 1-0 with about 5.5 minutes left in the first period, sweeping a backhander between goalie Milan Hnilicka's pads. Lemieux grabbed his own rebound, carried it behind the net and steered it to Morozov in the right circle.
About a minute later, Morozov was battling for the puck along the boards when Slava Kozlov's pass struck him on the left side of his face.
Morozov did not return, but the injury is not expected to sideline him for Saturday night's game against Tampa Bay.
Kovalev made it 2-0 in the final minute of the first period, scoring his first off Lemieux's setup as Pittsburgh successfully gambled by putting four forwards on the ice with the teams skating 4-on-4.
Robitaille scored his second of the season on a power play in the second. Lemieux fed him the puck along the goal line and Robitaille threw it on net, where it appeared to rebound off defenseman Kiril Safronov.
Kovalchuk beat Penguins goalie Johan Hedberg up high to the glove side on a power play at 7:19 of the third. Heatley got the Thrashers within a goal by scoring on a short-handed breakaway with just over seven minutes later, but Pittsburgh killed off a late Atlanta power play in the final three minutes.
Notes: Pittsburgh has outscored Atlanta 55-26 during the 13-game winning streak. ... Lemieux has three goals and 13 points in six games against Atlanta. ... Hedberg stopped 32 of 34 shots for his first victory of the season as a starter. He also won Monday in Toronto, replacing the injured Jean-Sebastien Aubin midway through the first period.
Sunday
July 6th, 2025
5:57AM
