Jagr Lifts Pens Over Habs

The Pittsburgh Penguins needed a little luck to snap their eight-game winless streak.

Jaromir Jagr scored his second goal of the game with 50 seconds left in the third period as the Penguins rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 Wednesday night.

"We were lucky tonight," Jagr said. "We had a lucky break on the second goal and we even had one on the game-winner. The puck hit their guy in the leg and went to (German) Titov."

"That's what we need," Jagr said. "We were in a tough situation and we needed that game very bad. To turn around that game, it's a big lift for us."

No one had to remind Montreal coach Alain Vigneault of the bad bounces that plagued his team in the final period, particularly on the last goal.

"It hits (Scott) Lachance, it hits (Igor) Ulanov and then it's 2-on-1. What can I say?" Vigneault said.

Pittsburgh overcame a 3-0 deficit to stretch Montreal's winless streak to nine games (0-8-1).

"I've been playing against Pittsburgh for 12 years now," Montreal defenseman Eric Weinrich said. "You're never going to shut them down completely because they have too many weapons and too much skill."

"For two periods, we did all the little things you have to do against them. In the third period, we didn't do those things and it cost us chances and goals."

Jagr's second goal completed an outburst of four goals in less than seven minutes for the Penguins, who were 0-6-2 in their previous eight games.

"We won tonight but you're not going to score four goals in the last eight minutes to win may," coach Kevin Constantine said.

Jagr, who also had two assists, has points in all 13 of Pittsburgh's games this season. That matches his career-best scoring streak, done twice before.

Robert Dome, Martin Straka and Jiri Slegr also scored in the third period for Pittsburgh, who blew a 4-1 lead Saturday against Tampa Bay.

The Penguins won for the first time since they beat the Rangers 5-2 in New York on Oct. 14. They got their first home win, ending an 0-3-2 stretch.

Montreal's last win was 2-1 over Buffalo on Oct. 16. The Canadiens scored more than two goals for just the third time in 16 games this season.

The Penguins grabbed a loose puck after it hit Ulanov at 7:21 to set up Dome's goal. Pittsburgh got a power play less than 30 seconds later and capitalized when Straka scored on a 40-foot slapshot ending his streak of 24 regular-season games without a goal.

Montreal got its first goal on a fortunate bounce at 4:51 of the first. Trevor Linden's shot caromed off the boards behind goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin, and Martin Rucinsky was able to tuck the rebound between Aubin's blocker and the goal post.

Zubrus scored his third goal at 17:54 of the first period, converting Brian Savage's pass.

At 13:13 of the second, Weinrich made it 3-0 with his first goal of the season. Jesse Belanger threaded a pass from behind the net through two Penguins and Weinrich one-timed the puck from the right circle.

Jagr scored his 12th goal for Pittsburgh at 16:09 of the second.

Savage, left uncovered by rookie defenseman Hans Jonsson, blasted a shot past Aubin from close range to give Montreal a 4-1 lead in the last minute of the second period.

Linesman Jean Morin left the game in the second period with a pulled groin muscle. The rest of the game was played with two officials, referee Mick McGeough and linesman Tim Nowak.

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