Jeff Halpern had quite a night on Thursday. He didn't score a goal. He didn't register an assist. Heck, he didn't even get a shot on goal. But (and this is a huge but), the guy he was matched up against didn't get a goal or an assist or a shot, either.

The guy?

Mario Lemieux.

That's right, Princeton grad Jeff Halpern, the first NHL player from Potamac, Md., did the seemingly impossible. He held Super Mario to zero shots. Now, he didn't do it alone. His linemates -- Steve Konowalchuk and Ulf Dahlen -- and the Caps' defense (especially Brendan Witt) helped out. But Halpern had the immediate responsibility of shadowing Lemieux. And, apparently, Lemieux wasn't thrilled about the idea. On the game's first shift, Lemieux snapped Halpern's head backward with a nasty elbow. The elbow was a simple message: "Buzz off, kid."

A few minutes later, Halpern replied by dumping No. 66 with a spear to the midsection. His message: "Get used to it, Mr. Lemieux."

With Lemieux under wraps, the Caps made a power-play goal by Peter Bondra (which deflected off the shin pad of a Penguin defender) stand up, winning Game 1, 1-0.

Can they win another 1-0 game? Probably not. Will Halpern hold Lemieux shotless again? I wouldn't bet on it. Will anything that happens in the rest of the series tarnish Halpern's team-first, defensive performance against Lemieux on Thursday night? No, not a thing.

E.J. Hradek writes hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.