PITTSBURGH -- When 4-year-old Austin Lemieux was deciding which hockey jersey to wear to his father's game against Ottawa, he had his choice of several bearing the family name.

Instead, he wore the No. 68 of his favorite player -- Jaromir Jagr.

	Lemieux assisted on all four of Jagr's goals in their first two games together.

Mario Lemieux smiled at his son's choice, patted him on the back and said, "We've got to get you a No. 66."

Hold on, Dad. The way Jagr is playing since your return to the ice, Austin might want to keep wearing 68 for good luck.

As well as Lemieux has played since ending his 3½-year retirement, he has made Jagr play even better.

The scorecard after Lemieux's first two games in 44 months: two wins for the Pittsburgh Penguins and 7 points apiece for Lemieux (2 goals, 5 assists) and Jagr (4 goals, all on assists by Lemieux, and 3 assists).

Think Lemieux's comeback isn't having an immediate and a dramatic effect on the Penguins, who now consider themselves a prime candidate to win the Stanley Cup?

Just ask Jagr, who is suddenly playing again with the enthusiasm and fun of a school kid and the skill of a three-time defending NHL scoring champion.

Remember, this is the same Jagr who recently had just one goal in 12 games and, as of 10 days, ago, wasn't among the top 20 in scoring.

"He's making a big difference," Jagr said after he and Lemieux reached scoring milestones in the Penguins' 5-3 victory Saturday over the Senators. "I didn't have a good start and I wasn't playing the way I wanted to play, because I'm a player who likes to be on top. I have a lot of confidence in myself ... and we're playing with a lot of confidence now."

Jagr had two goals and an assist Saturday and now has 1,002 points, the 59th player in NHL history with at least 1,000 points. Lemieux did him one better, with an empty-net goal and three assists that gave him 1,501 points -- the 10th to break the 1,500-point mark.

In only two games, Jagr has jumped from 17th to ninth in the NHL scoring race. At this pace, he could be in the lead in another week or so -- and, a couple of weeks after that, Lemieux might be chasing him.

"I'm not going to win it," Jagr said of the scoring title he has won every season since Lemieux retired. "Mario is. You watch."

Not if Lemieux keeps setting him up like this.

"Everything has changed since he came back," Jagr said. "All of a sudden, there isn't one guy on me all the time. I feel like I'm playing a different game now. There's always someone open, and they have to respect everybody on the rink."

Lemieux and Jagr were encouraged at playing so well, and so patiently, against a neutral zone-trapping team like Ottawa, which had allowed the fewest goals in the Eastern Conference.

Still, Lemieux thinks he and Jagr will play even better once Lemieux has a few more weeks of conditioning and fully regains his game legs.

"It's been pretty good so far," Lemieux said. "It's like I said, I was coming back to play at a high level. But I can play better than I've been playing."

That must be a scary thought to the rest of the NHL. However, Lemieux's comeback is proving fascinating even to opposing players, some of whom wondered if he could return after so long a layoff and resemble the player he once was.

Even though the Senators matched a season high with their fourth consecutive loss, forward Daniel Alfredsson marveled at Lemieux's play and said, "It's great to see."

What is remarkable to Alfredsson is that Lemieux seems to have lost little, if any, skill during a layoff so long that four Stanley Cup champions have been crowned since Lemieux last appeared in a playoff game.

Penguins coach Ivan Hlinka understands what he is watching.

"Some people are born and they can paint pictures, like Picasso, and some can write books," he said. "And some guys, they are born and they can play hockey -- like Mario and Jags."