ATLANTA, Oct 24: Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux scored his first goal of the season in a 4-2 win over the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday.

Ilja Kovalchuk gave the Thrashers a 1-0 lead at 6:14 of the first period when he scored on a one-timer from an odd angle along the left boards.

But Lemieux, who was a game-time decision because of a hip injury, knotted the score 27 seconds later when he reached around from behind the net and tapped in a loose puck.

“It’s unbelievable. The guy didn’t practice for two days and didn’t skate this morning, then he scores a big goal for us,” right wing Stephane Richer said of Lemieux. “That’s why we call him Mario the Magnificent. He’s the only guy who can do that.”

Rookie Kris Beech set up the tying and winning goals.

“He’s been playing good for us. Obviously he has a lot to learn,” said Lemieux, who also had an assist.

“Given a little bit of time he’s going to be a great one.”

Rookie Dany Heatley had a goal and an assist for Atlanta, which fell to 0-7-1 all time against Pittsburgh.

In Buffalo, Martin Biron stopped 19 shots and Vaclav Varada and Tim Connolly scored second-period goals as the Sabres beat the San Jose Sharks 4-1.

The Sabres were in control throughout and their defense was so dominant that San Jose went 21 minutes without a shot, failing to test Biron from the last 13 minutes of the second through the first eight minutes of the third.

In Chicago, Kyle Calder had two goals and an assist as the Blackhawks extended their unbeaten streak to five games with a 6-3 victory over the Calgary Flames.

The loss snapped the Flames’ four-game winning streak and denied them their first five-game winning streak since February 1997.

In Tampa, Nikolai Khabibulin made 17 saves as the Lightning rallied for a 1-1 tie against the Washington Capitals.

In overtime, Washington had two chances to win the game but Joe Reekie and Sylvain Cote were stopped on one-timers by Khabibulin, who remained unbeaten against the Capitals (2-0-3) in his career.

In Columbus, Adam Deadmarsh collected a career-high five points as the Los Angeles Kings posted a 7-1 triumph over the Blue Jackets.

Ziggy Palffy had two goals and an assist, Jozef Stumpel recorded three assists and Felix Potvin finished with 30 saves.

In Vancouver, Markus Naslund scored his sixth goal of the season and Brendan Morrison had a goal and two assists to lead the Canucks to a 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators.

Herbert Vasiljevs and Ed Jovanovski also tallied as Vancouver snapped a three-game losing streak.

In Ottawa, Patrik Elias scored with 10:12 left in the third period as the New Jersey Devils beat the Senators 2-1 in a game that was delayed 80 minutes at the start due to a power outage in the area surrounding the Corel Centre.

It was the first road victory this season for New Jersey, which had dropped its first three games away from home.

TUESDAY’S RESULTS (home team in CAPS):