NHL ROUNDUP : Pirates Give Penguins Boost Over Sabres, 6-5

What beat the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday night at Pittsburgh?

Was it Mario Lemieux’s goal and four assists for the Penguins?

Was it two goals and an assist by Kevin Stevens?

Was it clutch goaltending by Ken Wregget?

Actually, it wasn’t any of the above, Sabre Coach John Muckler said after a 6-5 loss.

“I blame this all on the Pittsburgh Pirates,” Muckler said.

The Pirates? The baseball team that spent Tuesday night forcing a seventh game in the National League playoffs? Precisely. The Civic Arena scoreboard in Pittsburgh posted updates that showed the Pirates pounding the Braves, and put the crowd of 15,575 in a frenzy. At the same time, the Penguins scored three times in 2:17 to take control of the game.

“They announced the score up there and Lemieux went crazy, along with Stevens and (Jaromir) Jagr,” Muckler said. “That was the game right there.”

At first, the Penguins were confused by the cheering. They were lining up for a faceoff when the crowd started to roar.

“We had to look around and see what it was,” Stevens said. “I thought maybe it was a fight. It definitely would have been a fight in the Boston Garden.”

Tampa Bay 2, St. Louis 1--The Lightning’s Pat Jablonski made 35 saves against his former teammates in St. Louis. Craig Janney scored on a deflection with 18 seconds left to end a stretch of 144 minutes 11 seconds without a goal for the Blues.

Calgary 4, Minnesota 3--In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the Flames edged the North Stars in the first game of the NHL’s experiment with neutral sites this season.

Each of the NHL’s 24 teams will play two games in a neutral city this season as the league scouts possible expansion sites.