Jagr Has a Magnificent Seven

Jaromir Jagr again demonstrated why he is the most dominant offensive player in the NHL.

Jagr had a career-high seven points, scoring three goals and assisting on four others as the Pittsburgh Penguins routed the New York Islanders, 9-3, at Pittsburgh on Thursday night.

“It’s a scary thing what he’s doing,” teammate Kip Miller said.

Jagr, who leads the NHL with 31 goals and 66 points in 35 games, broke his career points mark of six, one goal and five assists, set in an 11-5 victory over Philadelphia in 1993.

“It was a wide-open game and we had the lead right away so we didn’t have to battle much,” Jagr said. “We had a two-goal lead, three-goal lead all the game. When we get the lead, the other team has to open up and that’s helped me a lot.”

Jagr actually missed a shot at another point when Miller had the puck roll off his stick on a breakaway that Jagr’s pass set up.

“If I get that breakaway, he has eight points,” Miller said. “That’s what I’m mad about.”

Jagr’s seven points were one short of the club record held by Mario Lemieux. Jagr joked that he was glad he didn’t tie Lemieux, the team owner.

“I need a paycheck,” Jagr said with a laugh.

Pittsburgh, coming off a 3-2 overtime loss in Washington on Wednesday night, scored five power-play goals after converting only two of its previous 32 chances.

Chicago 2, Florida 1--Jocelyn Thibault made 29 saves and Doug Gilmour and Alex Zhamnov scored goals as the Blackhawks defeated the Panthers at Chicago.

Florida star Pavel Bure failed to record a point, ending his franchise-record 11-game scoring streak. He had 12 goals and nine assists during the streak.

Zhamnov broke a 1-1 tie with five minutes left in the second period. After passing to Dean McAmmond, Zhamnov skated down the slot and one-timed McAmmond’s return pass under goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov.

Gilmour opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 6:52 of the first period. He knocked the puck out of the air after Shtalenkov made a glove save on Bryan McCabe’s shot from the point.

St. Louis 2, San Jose 1--Al MacInnis scored with 1:20 left in overtime at St. Louis as the Blues defeated the Sharks in a game that featured two penalty shots.

MacInnis, who got the puck off a faceoff and moved in from the point, beat goalie Steve Shields with a wrist shot for the defenseman’s sixth goal of the season.

With 20.8 seconds left in regulation, St. Louis center Pierre Turgeon had a chance to win the game when referee Brad Watson called a penalty shot on San Jose’s Stephane Matteau for intentionally knocking the net off its moorings. But Turgeon’s shot hit the goal post.

In the second period, the Blues faced their first penalty shot since 1996, when referee Paul Stewart penalized goalie Roman Turek for throwing his stick at Jeff Friesen. But Turek stopped Friesen’s wrist shot.

Nashville 6, Atlanta 0--Rob Valicevic and Cliff Ronning each scored twice and Tomas Vokoun made 25 saves at Nashville as the Predators defeated the Thrashers to extended their franchise-record unbeaten streak to seven games.

Nashville is 4-0-3 in its last seven, and the expansion Thrashers are 1-9-2 in their last 12. Atlanta has given up three or more goals in 13 consecutive games.

Vokoun earned his second career shutout and the first of the season for Nashville. The Predators scored three goals and outshot the Thrashers, 16-4, in the first period.

Ottawa 5, Boston 4--Defenseman Jason York scored 1:23 into overtime to give the Senators a victory over the Bruins at Kanata, Canada.

York beat goalie Byron Dafoe with a high wrist shot to extend Ottawa’s undefeated streak to five games. The goal was York’s first in his last 80 regular-season games.

Shaun Van Allen, Radek Bonk, Shawn McEachern and Magnus Arvedson also scored for the Senators, who overcame a 4-2 deficit in the third period to improve to 5-1-4 in their last 10 games.