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10/23/1997 05:33 EST NHL Roundup (Excerpt) By KEN RAPPOPORT The Pittsburgh Penguins are proving that there is life after Mario Lemieux. Despite the retirement of one of hockey's greatest players, the Penguins have suddenly become one of the NHL's hottest teams. They stretched their unbeaten streak to six games Wednesday night with a 5-2 victory at San Jose. ``We're still kind of learning the system (new coach) Kevin (Constantine) put into effect,'' Pittsburgh center Stu Barnes said. ``The big part of it is hard work and continue to play within yourself.'' The Penguins, despite the loss of Lemieux and the absence of contract holdout Petr Nedved, are 5-0-1 in their last six games. Their early-season surge has carried the Penguins (6-3-2) into a virtual three-way tie with Boston and Ottawa for first place in the Northeast Division. Elsewhere, it was Colorado 4, Washington 3; Buffalo 4, Calgary 1; Carolina 4, St. Louis 3; Montreal 3, Florida 0; Ottawa 6, Toronto 2; Chicago 1, New York 0; and Detroit 4, Anaheim 1. Eddie Olczyk scored the go-ahead goal with 13:02 remaining and Andreas Johansson added an empty-net score with 46 seconds left for the Penguins. The victory gave former Sharks coach Constantine a win in his first trip to San Jose since taking over as Pittsburgh coach in June. Constantine, an assistant with Calgary last year, led the Sharks into the playoffs in 1994 and 1995 before being fired when San Jose began the 1995-96 season with an 3-18-4 mark. The Sharks killed all seven Pittsburgh power plays, but again had trouble scoring. Averaging just 2.5 goals per game, San Jose lost for the sixth time in seven games. The Sharks were 0-2 on the power play and extended their scoreless drought with the man advantage to a team record 0-39. ``When you come on the road, you look to set yourself up for the third period,'' Penguins left wing Alex Hicks said. ``We know we'll get our goals. It's a matter of keeping the game close.''
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