Jani Hurme, the Ottawa Senators' rookie goaltender, had been eagerly anticipating his first faceoff with Mario Lemieux.
"For me, it was an honor," Hurme said. "I saw him only in highlights. I wanted to face him."
Not like this, he didn't.
With the score tied early in the third period, the Senators were on the verge of killing a power play. The Penguins still had their top players on the ice, a contingent that included, of course, Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. And the puck was bouncing around behind the Ottawa net, where Penguins left winger Rene Corbet charged hard to pursue it.
Three Senators followed him.
No kidding.
First went defenseman Chris Phillips, then left winger Rob Zamuner, then defenseman Jason York.
Corbet, naturally, slipped the puck to the front, where Lemieux and Jagr stood wide open to either side of Hurme.
"It's unbelievable," Hurme said. "To look up and see both of them like that."
Before anyone could wish Hurme a happy new year, Lemieux fed Jagr at the left edge of the crease for a slam dunk with 18:32 remaining.
That proved to be the winning goal in the Penguins' 5-3 victory last night at Mellon Arena, and it underscored how sloppily the usually conservative and composed Senators had conducted themselves on this night.
"I thought we had a good effort tonight, but we had too many mistakes by some veteran players," Coach Jacques Martin said. "If you don't take care of the back end against guys like Lemieux and Jagr, that's going to cost you. Especially against guys like that. You have to be aware of who they are and where the puck is."
The Senators have hit their low point.
They have lost four in a row and are winless in a season-high six games. Worse, they lost their first-place standing in the Eastern Conference and are beginning to show signs that perhaps their sizzling start was little more than a mirage.
"It's tough to say what's wrong," left winger Marian Hossa said. "I guess that it's just normal for a team to have ups and downs. But this, the way we played tonight and the mistakes we made, that's not normal for us. We're not playing our game right now."
The last thing the Senators needed was to limp into Pittsburgh for their third game in four nights and take on the monumental challenge of facing Lemieux and Jagr. Lemieux finished with a goal and three assists, Jagr with two goals and an assist.
This group of Senators knows all too well what Jagr can do, so they spent much of their postgame interview session marveling at Lemieux's work.
"It's a little surprising to be honest," right winger Daniel Alfredsson said. "To take 3 1/2 years off, you'd think maybe he would have lost a step or lost his poise. But you can see how patient he is out there, always thinking about the next play he's going to make. He always knows what he's going to do with it. It's great to see."
"Mario has brought an extra dimension to that team," Martin said. "The way he was using his size and strength, and all of his skill with the puck. He was very dangerous."
After allowing that critical goal to the Penguins early in the third period, the Senators kept coming, ringing two shots off the pipes behind goaltender Garth Snow and continuing to skate hard.
But with time ticking away, Lemieux and Jagr struck again.
With Hurme pulled for an extra attacker, Jagr carried the puck down the right wing, then fed Lemieux streaking to his left. Lemieux used a spin-o-rama move reminiscent of Hall of Famer Denis Savard to twirl around Senators center Alexei Yashin at the circle and bank a backhander into the net off defenseman Wade Redden.
Redden smashed his stick over the crossbar.
"It was a very frustrating loss for all of us," Alfredsson said. "It was tough."
Tough, but it couldn't have been completely disheartening, considering those who delivered the one-two punch.
"You have to give credit to Lemieux and Jagr," Hurme said. "They're great players, and they made great plays."
Sliding Senators run into Lemieux, Jagr 
E-mail this story 
