Lemieux scored one goal and set up two others as the visiting Pens soundly defeated the slumping Ottawa Senators 4-1 on Wednesday night.
Lemieux put in a typical workmanlike performance, assisting on goals by Dick Tarnstrom and Alexei Kovalev as well as chipping in his sixth marker of the season to give the Pens their third straight win.
"Tonight, we didn't have too many chances, but the ones we did have, we took advantage of," said Lemieux, the NHL scoring leader with six goals and 17 assists in 10 games. "Our power play is hot right now and we're taking advantage of it."
Pittsburg Penquins' Alexei Kovalev (left) tries to get around Ottawa Senators' Wade Redden. (CP PHOTO)
Jan Hrdina added a goal and an assist while Tarnstrom also contributed an assist to help the offence.
Pens goaltender Johan Hedberg was solid when tested, making 20 saves for the victory.
Daniel Alfredsson scored the lone goal for the Sens, which are now winless in their last four games.
Given how the Pens offence managed to easily escape a normally-stringent Sens defence, it would be wrong to blame the loss on Patrick Lalime.
The Sens netminder did struggle, however, at times throughout this contest in making just 15 saves.
Before the start of the game, the city was buzzing about the home debut of highly-touted rookie centre Jason Spezza and the return of former No. 1 draft pick Alexandre Daigle.
Neither made a real impression on the Corel Centre crowd. Spezza had one good scoring chance on a power play in the first period and Daigle's intercepted pass ended up in the eventual game winner, but other than those incidents they were basically invisible in this one.
Daigle, who managed 74 goals and 98 assists in 4 1/2 seasons in Ottawa, was booed throughout the game.
"I was nervous," said Daigle, who retired after the 1999-2000 season. "(The booing) wasn't that bad, it's getting less every game."
After a few lacklustre showings, 17,987 fans managed to show up at the Corel Centre for this game but they were fairly subdued throughout and many left with six minutes remaining.
The Penguins tied the game at 1-1 on Tarnstrom's power-play goal at 6:28 of the opening period.
After a turnover in the Senators' zone by Chris Phillips, Lemieux took the puck at the left point. The Penguins' captain then fed a pass to Aleksey Morozov, who swung the puck across to Tarnstrom for an easy one- timer from the right side of the crease.
Pittsburgh outshot the Senators, 12-6, in the second period and scored twice to grab a 3-1 advantage.
Hrdina scored at 5:51 of the period to give the Penguins their first lead of the contest. Lalime turned the puck over in the left corner to Daigle, who centred a pass to Kris Beech.
However, Beech fanned on the puck before Hrdina took over and wristed a shot into the right corner of the net.
Kovalev tallied with 6:49 remaining in the middle stanza to give Pittsburgh a two-goal edge.
Lemieux won the faceoff in the left circle back to Kovalev, who quickly blasted a slap shot past Lalime.
Lemieux added a power-play goal at 2:56 of the third period. Hrdina held the puck along the right boards and sent a pass in the high slot to Lemieux, who ripped a one-timer between Lalime's pads for his sixth goal of the year.
Ottawa opened the scoring on Alfredsson's power-play goal at 2:07 of the first period.
