Super Mario picks up Penguins

Lemieux (66) bounced back to lift the Penguins

Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 New Jersey Devils
(The series is tied 1-1)

Mario Lemieux orchestrated a comeback from two goals down as the Pittsburgh Penguins triumphed 4-2 over New Jersey.

The away win ties the best-of seven Eastern Conference finals series at 1-1.

Defending Stanley Cup champions New Jersey had dominated the first period.

And the dominant Devils cruised into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.

But Lemieux took advantage of defensive lapses to set up a goals by Alexei Morozov and Alexei Kovalev in a spell of less than three minutes midway through the second period to draw level.

They made the mistakes and we took advantage of them

  Pittsburgh hero Mario Lemieux

Rene Corbet scored the eventual game winner in Pittsburgh's three-goal second period.

And Robert Lang added an insurance goal for the Penguins off a perfect feed from Kovalev from behind the net just over five minutes into the third to complete the scoring.

Penguins rookie goaltender Johan Hedberg made 27 saves, stopping all 16 shots he faced over the final two periods.

Jay Pandolfo and Petr Sykora had put the Devils 2-0 in front.

Lucky strike

Pandolfo was fortunate as he sent the puck toward the crease from the bottom of the right face-off circle. The strike hit Hedberg's stick and deflected in.

Sykora's seventh goal of the play-offs came after he broke through with an explosive burst of speed.

The game marked the return of Devils defenceman Scott Niedermayer.

He had missed the last four play-off games while recovering from a concussion, courtesy of an elbow to the face by Toronto's Tie Domi in game four of the previous series.

Forward Sergei Brylin also returned to the New Jersey line-up just 10 days after undergoing knee surgery.

Game three takes place on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.