Lalime notches sixth shutout of season

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- It was a night to Toni Dahlman should never forget.

The Ottawa Senators' Finnish right wing was thrilled to have Mario Lemieux sign a jersey for him before the game. Then he delivered his first NHL goal to help Ottawa beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 Wednesday night.

"It's about time I scored that first goal,'' said Dahlman, who played his 16th NHL game after being recalled Monday from Binghamton of the American Hockey League. "Coming against Mario Lemieux, that's a big thing because he's the man. I'm pretty happy right now.''

Goalie Patrick Lalime stopped 20 shots for his sixth shutout of the season, and Marian Hossa and Chris Neil also scored for Ottawa. The Senators moved within a point of Dallas for the league's overall lead with the victory, their second in the last six road games.

"I thought that (Dahlman) line tonight was excellent,'' said Ottawa coach Jacques Martin, who played Dahlman with Neil and center Mike Fisher. "They created some chances, and sometimes it's good to get some help from those other lines as well.''

A crowd of 14,197, the Penguins' largest in three games, turned out for Pittsburgh's first game since the unpopular eight-player trade which sent Alexei Kovalev to the New York Rangers on Monday. Three players acquired in that trade, forwards Rico Fata and Mikael Samuelsson and defenseman Joel Bouchard, were in the Pittsburgh lineup along with defenseman Shawn Heins, acquired from San Jose one day earlier.

"It's tough for those guys, because it takes a few games for them to get used to new surroundings and the tendencies of everyone else,'' center Randy Robitaille said. "But I thought they played pretty well.''

Fata had the Penguins' best scoring chance of the night late in the second period when Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips failed to knock down a Pittsburgh dump-in, sending Fata in alone on Lalime. But the former Pittsburgh goalie, traded to Anaheim in 1998 after a successful rookie season, stopped Fata's wrist shot.

"We needed to get the first goal,'' Pittsburgh coach Rick Kehoe said. "The way Lalime was playing, we could have played all night and never scored on him. He was sharp tonight.''

Lalime, who has 20 shutouts over the last three seasons, was rarely tested while playing for the first time since sitting out two games with the flu. Only Toronto's Ed Belfour and New Jersey's Martin Brodeur (seven) have more shutouts this season.

"I had some great memories here, but it's always fun to come back here and get a win,'' said Lalime, who set an NHL record for the longest unbeaten streak from the start of a career by going 14-0-2 for the Penguins during the 1996-97 season. "But this was a team effort. We really shut them down, limited Mario's space.''

Dahlman beat Pittsburgh goaltender Johan Hedberg with a wrist shot from the edge of the left circle after taking a pass from Fisher at 14:20 of the second period.

Hossa made it 2-0 just 40 seconds into the third period when he skated behind the net, fought off Bouchard and slid a shot past Hedberg for his 35th goal after Shaun Van Allen had won a faceoff in the right circle.

Neil converted a Bouchard turnover into his fifth goal of the season at 9:17 of the third period when he fired a wrist shot over Hedberg's glove from between the circles.

"I made a mistake there that cost us a goal,'' Bouchard said. "And it will happen again. But I will always try my hardest. . . fans have to bear with us.''

Game notes
Pittsburgh's next game is Friday in New York against Kovalev and the Rangers. . . The Penguins scratched center Martin Straka (hamstring) and defensemen Jamie Pushor and Hans Jonsson, while the Senators scratched Curtis Leschyshyn (groin) and Peter Schaefer (foot). . . The loss was just Pittsburgh's fourth in 24 all-time home games against the Senators. . . The crowd gave Lemieux a standing ovation when the Penguins' captain was honored with a video tribute for recording his 1,000th assist last Saturday at Boston. ... Pittsburgh is now 12-12-1-2 at home. ... The struggling Pittsburgh power play, second only to Ottawa, failed on three chances and is now 2-for-47 over the last 11 games.