Kovalev Turns Another Trick

The Pittsburgh Penguins have won the last five NHL individual scoring titles, so its nothing new that one of them has the goal-scoring lead. The surprise is it's not Jaromir Jagr or Mario Lemieux.

Alexei Kovalev scored 18 seconds into overtime for his second hat trick in as many games and the Penguins rallied from three goals down to beat the New Jersey Devils 5-4 Saturday.

The Penguins led 4-3 on Kevin Stevens' goal - their third in a span of 2:33 in the second period but Scott Stevens tied it with 4:12 left in regulation after Scott Gomez won a faceoff in the Pittsburgh end.

Kovalev, who scored twice about a minute apart during the furious Penguins rally in the second period, put a backhander past Martin Brodeur off Martin Straka's pass from along the right boards on Pittsburgh's opening rush of overtime.

"I was surprised he was so wide open," Straka said. "I tried to get it to him because everything he touches is going in."

Kovalev has six goals and two assists in two games since the All-Star game, in which he also had a goal. His 33 goals are one more than Washington's Peter Bondra.

Kovalev is the first Penguins player to have consecutive three-goal games since Lemieux on Oct. 26 and 28, 1995, against the Islanders and Devils.

The overtime victory was the Penguins' first in nine games. They had been 0-2-6. They are 12-5-0-1 overall and 9-2 at home since Lemieux came out of retirement.

Lemieux was limited to an assist and two shots in 19:55 of ice time, then said he was bothered by a sore back. Lemieux retired in 1997 at age 31, mostly because he was weary of dealing with frequent bouts of back pain.

"It was like the old days today, I had to have somebody tie my skates for me," said Lemieux, who said the back started bothering him in practice Friday. "That was the first time that's happened (since he came out of retirement in late December)."

However, Lemieux said he felt better after the game.

"I'll make the trip (for Sunday's game at Minnesota) and try to play," he said.

Sergei Brylin had two goals and Scott McKay also scored as the Devils opened a 3-0 lead with 12:52 gone. But the Penguins rallied after killing off a two-man Devils advantage that lasted the final 1:04 of the first period and the first 1:57 of the second period.

New Jersey played without three of its top players, leading scorer Alexander Mogilny (neck) and defensemen Scott Niedermayer (knee) and Brian Rafalski (shoulder). Also, forward Jason Arnott didn't return after being tripped by Josef Beranek midway through the second period. The Devils didn't disclose his injury.

"The fact we took a 3-0 lead shows you that as much as we need those players, we can still play on a good level without them," Bobby Holik said. "We got it to 3-0 and we started playing right into their hands."

The Devils started out as if they might duplicate their 9-0 victory in Pittsburgh on Oct. 28 the worst home loss in Penguins' history. McKay, who had four goals in the Oct. 28 game, chased Penguins starting goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin with his 17th goal, but Rich Parent came on to stop all but one of the 15 shots he faced.

Parent, called up Friday from Wilkes-Barre Scranton of the AHL when Garth Snow (groin) went on the injured list, hadn't won since beating New Jersey on March 17. He is 1-2-0 this season.

"The problem was we had power plays galore and we probably would have been better off without them," Scott Stevens said. "We didn't get the fourth goal to put them away."

Down 3-0, the Penguins' comeback began when Jan Hrdina put a rebound of Beranek's shot from the right corner past Brodeur at 16:28 of the first.

Then, just after the Penguins killed off Straka's high-sticking penalty, Kovalev got a power play goal at 3:28, then scored again barely a minute later to make it 3-3. Kovalev had three goals and a career-high five points Wednesday in a 9-4 victory over Philadelphia.

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