Jagr's Five Points Spark Pens

When Jaromir Jagr is on his game, he feels he can dominate any goaltender -- even the Dominator.

Jagr figured in all of Pittsburgh's scoring, setting up goals by new linemates Jan Hrdina and Kip Miller in a span of 1:12 late in the third period as the Penguins rallied to beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 Tuesday night.

Jagr scored an empty-net goal with one second left and assisted on the four Pittsburgh goals against Buffalo goaltender Dominik Hasek -- his Czech Olympic teammate a February ago -- for a five-point night.

Jagr had a pair of four-point games to earn NHL player of the week honors last week.

"Sometimes you feel you can do anything on the ice, sometimes you feel you can't do anything," said Jagr, who leads the NHL with 72 points. "Right now, I feel like I can do anything."

The Penguins won their fourth in a row and became the first team this season to rally from a third-period deficit against Buffalo, which had been 19-0-0 when leading after two periods.

With the Penguins trailing 3-2 with seven minutes to play, Miller said Jagr stood up on the bench and said, "We're not going to lose this game."

"After that, the way he was playing, it was all we could do to keep up with him." Miller said.

The Sabres, 1-14-2 in their last 17 games in the Civic Arena, must have felt the same way.

"He made four great passes and they got four goals," said Hasek, who leads NHL goaltenders in victories and shutouts. "Especialy on the tying goal, he made a great pass. His passes were great, they were always on the stick. With a playmaker like that, all you have to do is wait for the puck and shoot it."

Miller, who had played mostly on checking lines until being moved up to Jagr's line with Hrdina last week, had two goals and four points. Kevin Hatcher also scored and Hrdina had a three-point game.

>

Jaromir Jagr was nearly unstoppable Tuesday night. (AP)

Miller gave up a chance for his first NHL hat trick, passing up a shot so he could feed the puck to Jagr for the empty-net goal.

"That was a good idea by him," Jagr said, laughing. "Maybe now he will be on my line again next week."

Jason Woolley, Brian Holzinger and Miroslav Satan scored in a three-goal Buffalo third period that made it 3-2 against goaltender Peter Skudra, who also won his fourth in a row.

"You couldn't ask for a better second period, and I thought we shut them down for the first 14 minutes of the third period," Holzinger said. "It just fell apart in those last six minutes."

Satan was unhappy the Sabres let Jagr skate virtually unchecked during the decisive stretch of the third period.

"He's good, you can't take that away from him," Satan said. "But we can play better against him. We gave him too much space. We didn't play the way we should against his line."

Hrdina tied it at 13:59 of the third with a power-play goal with Satan off for high-sticking. Miller then got his second of the game and eighth of the season at 15:11 as Jagr fought off two defenders in the left circle to thread the puck to Miller as he skated down the slot.

Hasek, who beat Pittsburgh 3-0 in his last start against them last season, had shut out the Penguins for 100 minutes, 22 seconds until Miller scored 32 seconds into the game, putting in his own rebound off Jagr's setup.

Hatcher made it 2-0 at 17:41 with the first of the Penguins' two power-play goals.

Woolley, a former Penguins player, directed a shot from the left circle off the post and by Skudra on the power play at 29 seconds of the second period. Holzinger scored off Darius Kasparaitis' giveaway at 9:12.

Satan got his 20th with four seconds left in the period after the Sabres' Derek Plante hooked Martin Straka in the neutral zone, allowing Michal Grosek to scoop up the puck and shoot it up ice.

© 1999 SportsLine USA, Inc. All rights reserved