Home >  Sports >  Penguins

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

There is no science to forming forward lines in hockey.

"I've been a player, a coach and a general manager in this game for a lot of years," said Craig Patrick, who now holds the latter post with the Penguins. "You never know whether three guys will click. There's really no explaining how chemistry happens."

What is considerably easier is recognizing chemistry after it happens. Which is why Patrick does not mince words when assessing the work of Mathias Johansson, Rico Fata and Guillaume Lefebvre in their three games together.

	More Penguins Coverage: Penguins Report: 3/18/03 Baby Penguins Notebook: Diminutive DuPont has a new hill to climb Prospect watch

"They've been our best line," Patrick said. "No question, they've jelled pretty quickly."

Almost instantly, actually.

Fata, acquired by trade Feb. 10, had been with the Penguins a full month when Johansson and Lefebvre arrived in other deals a week ago. Fata and Lefebvre met at the morning skate the next day, but Johansson's long trek from Calgary kept him from arriving until two hours before faceoff against the Nashville Predators.

"We didn't even know each other when we started playing," Lefebvre recalled. "But it was funny ... everything worked right away."

Since then, they have scored three of the Penguins' five goals, combining for 11 points and 14 shots.

Those numbers hardly are enough to make anyone forget the Vancouver Canucks' supersonic trio of Brendan Morrison, Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi. But given the Penguins' 0-11-1 streak and the paltry 17 goals they have scored in that span, any trace of offense is magnified.

"It's great to see," goaltender Johan Hedberg said. "The way they work together, what they've been able to do, it's very encouraging for our whole team right now."

Johansson, 29, is the player most acknowledge as being the key to the line. He is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound center with a strong stride, a bullish presence on the puck and a commitment to his own end which exceeds that of some defensemen. He has three assists and a plus-3 rating in his three games in Pittsburgh.

"He's just really smart out there," Patrick said. "I think he makes the other guys' jobs easier."

Fata, 23, is the primary forechecker and playmaker, using his world-class speed in a near-reckless manner. He has a goal and three assists since the line was formed.

Lefebvre, 21, has used his 6-foot-1, 200-pound frame to finish his checks with authority and to go to the net aggressively, traits which doubtless are a product of being raised in the Philadelphia system. He has two goals and two assists with the Penguins after having no points in 14 games with the Flyers.

All three cite communication as their strongest trait, despite their divergent backgrounds and personalities. Johansson spent the 10 seasons before this one in his native Sweden, Fata is from English-speaking Ontario, and Lefebvre retains a thick French accent from his upbringing in western Quebec.

	BY THE NUMBERS Statistics for the Penguins' line of Mathias Johansson, Rico Fata and Guillaume Lefebvre in their three games together: Player G A Pts Shots +/- Johansson 0 3 3 5 +3 Fata 1 3 4 7 +4 Lefebvre 2 2 4 4 +2 Total 3 8 11 16

"I think the talking is the thing," Fata said. "Mathias is very vocal out there, especially with me. He takes a lot of pride in his defense, and he wants to make sure we do the same. Me, I try to yell a little bit at Guillaume, just to help him out along the boards and stuff like that. We all talk all the time, even off the ice, to make sure we're on the right page."

To Johansson, the right page for his line is one on which each player is reading each play the same way. And doing so quickly, without stopping to think.

"We need to keep our feet and the puck moving," Johansson said. "That's what we talk about. Everything should move all the time. When one of us moves, the other two need to react."

That trait has been evident on their goals, none of which have come on the rush.

"They've all been plays out of the corner, in the slot, rebounds," Lefebvre said. "We support each other wherever we are."

"We're all hungry for goals," Fata said. "When we get goals, you can see all of us are working hard to make it happen."

Coach Rick Kehoe has been quick to change lines this season, but he plans to keep this trio together tonight for the home game against the Detroit Red Wings and for the foreseeable future.

"They're playing well, working hard, getting goals for us every game," Kehoe said. "Looks like they've got something going for us, doesn't it?"