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BOX SCORE
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Philadelphia Flyers showed the Pittsburgh
Penguins that size and physical play are an asset, at least if
they're used in the right way.
Mark Recchi had two goals and two assists and the Flyers,
undeterred by Pittsburgh's newly toughened-up lineup, dominated the
Penguins in a 5-1 victory Wednesday night.
|  | | Jody Hull's short-handed goal in the first period gave the Flyers a 2-1 edge, a lead they would not relinquish. |
Keith Primeau took advantage of a favorable pairing against
Pittsburgh's smaller defensemen to score two first-period goals in
what easily was the Penguins' worst performance of Mario Lemieux's
comeback.
Lemieux scored his 16th goal in 16 games, but the Penguins,
playing their second game in two nights, quickly wore down, taking
some ill-timed penalties in their first loss in five games. They
had been 7-1 at home and 10-4-0-1 overall since Lemieux came out of
retirement.
The Penguins recently added brawlers Krzysztof Oliwa and Steve
McKenna and reacquired big forward Kevin Stevens after opponents
began trying to rough up Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, but the Flyers
were ready.
Todd Fedoruk rammed Jagr hard into the boards in the first
period -- Jagr returned briefly after that, but sat out the third
period with a headache -- then didn't take unnecessary penalties
when the Penguins responded with some hard hits and punches.
"After he was hit, he said he would try (to play)," coach Ivan
Hlinka said. "But he started to get a headache and it was better
to take him out of the game. He lost a little bit of his
concentration, and you need to be sure of what's happening out
there."
Penguins officials said the four-time scoring champion was held
out for precautionary reasons and probably would not miss the NHL
All-Star Game Sunday in Denver.
"I'm OK," Jagr said.
"We knew they were going to try to set a tone, that they have a
bigger team and a more physical team, and they were going to come
running and we were ready for it," Recchi said. "We knew if we
kept our composure, we'd come out all right, and we did."
The Flyers lost their two pre-Lemieux meetings against the
Penguins, but took control of this one after Jody Hull's
shorthanded goal in the first period put them ahead to stay 2-1.
Just as Stevens was leaving the penalty box after serving a
double minor, Hull swung the momentum by backhanding a rebound of
Peter White's shot past Jean-Sebastien Aubin with five Penguins
forwards on the ice.
"We just seemed to jump forward past them, we had a mini
3-on-2, and I had a step on (Martin) Straka and he was kind of
turned around and I just took it to the net," Hull said.
The Penguins seemed too eager to retaliate for any Flyers push
or shove during a series of first-period fracases and thus drew
unnecessary penalties. They killed off the first 3:22 of Stevens'
four-minute penalty before Recchi was called for interference, only
to give up the go-ahead goal while on a power play.
"We haven't played a physical team in a while," Penguins
defenseman Bob Boughner said. "We had a lot of penalties and
couldn't roll four lines out there, and we didn't have many fresh
legs in the first period."
With their special teams on the ice so much -- the Penguins had
50 penalty minutes to the Flyers' 26 -- Pittsburgh never did get
into a flow.
"We had a bad start and we started trying too hard, and nothing
we were doing was working," Lemieux said.
Primeau made it 3-1 at 17:43, again setting up in front of the
net to put in a rebound of Simon Gagne's shot from along the goal
line for his 22nd goal. Primeau scored earlier in similar fashion,
powering his way to the front of the net to steer Gagne's shot from
the left circle past Aubin.
Both times, Primeau took advantage of Hlinka's decision to match his smaller defensemen, Darius
Kasparaitis and Ian Moran, against his much-bigger line.
"Primeau is a big man and I thought he was dominant," Flyers
coach Bill Barber said. "It really didn't matter as far as
matchups with lines, all of our lines played well. We got the max
out of every one of our players and I wasn't going to start
matching up when it wasn't necessary."
Recchi, who played with Lemieux and Stevens on the Penguins'
1991 Stanley Cup-winning team, scored his 11th and 12th goals in
the second period. His assists on Primeau's goals gave him 600 for
his career.
Flyers goaltender Roman Cechmanek stopped 30 of 31 shots and now
has a 19-7-4 record.
Game notes
Lemieux scored on a power play at 7:35 of the first. He has
16 goals and 16 assists in his 16 games. All 16 have been sellouts.
... The game was the Penguins' last until they play the Flyers
again Wednesday, also at Mellon Arena. The Flyers have two games
between now and then. ... The Flyers are 14-5-4-1 under Barber. ...
The Penguins missed a chance to tie the Flyers for second place in
the Atlantic Division. ... Three of the Penguins' first four losses
with Lemieux were by one goal.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Philadelphia Clubhouse
Pittsburgh Clubhouse
RECAPS
Toronto 4
Carolina 3
Detroit 3
Columbus 2
NY Rangers 4
Montreal 2
Florida 5
Buffalo 2
NY Islanders 3
New Jersey 2
Philadelphia 5
Pittsburgh 1
Edmonton 3
Chicago 2
Nashville 3
Anaheim 0
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Keith Primeau fights off Mario Lemieux to score the early goal.
avi: 1465 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Keith Primeau gets the rebound in front of the net for his second goal of the night.
avi: 1244 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
The Flyers get a lucky bounce and Mark Recchi is there to capitalize for his second goal of the night.
avi: 1208 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Mario Lemieux finds the bouncing puck in front of the net for the 1st period goal.
avi: 1694 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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