NHL Koltsov ignites Pens offense; Lemieux's feeds help rookie

The Belarus rookie has a reputation for rocks for hands.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- After a whirlwind tour that included three preseason games in three cities in three nights, the Pittsburgh Penguins used Monday as their first official off-day of this year's training camp.
Players might be using the day to allow Konstantin Koltsov's weekend performance to sink in.
Playing on a line with Mario Lemieux and Martin Straka, the 22-year-old right wing lit up the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night for three goals in a 5-5 tie at Mellon Arena, then chipped in an assist on defenseman Dick Tarnstrom's power play goal in Pittsburgh's 5-1 loss Sunday in Columbus.
Koltsov sat out Saturday's 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals in Portland, Maine.
It was a surprising performance from the Belarus native who has been tagged as a player with rockets on his skates and rocks for hands.
"They certainly created quite a bit," Pittsburgh head coach Eddie Olczyk said after Friday's game. "When you have your best player [Lemieux], and the best player in the world and he works as hard as he does in practice, it becomes a domino effect for everybody."
Previous boosts
Lemieux is known for getting the most out of his wingers. Warren Young scored 40 goals playing on Lemieux's right wing in 1984-85, but hit the twine only 32 more times in six subsequent seasons in the NHL.
Right wing Rob Brown scored 49 goals in 1988-89, but never came close to that number again in parts of nine other campaigns.
It would be hard to find such success at any point in Koltsov's short career.
His best scoring performance came at the 1999 World Junior Championships when he scored four goals and seven points in six games. The following year in Novokuznetsk, he netted only three goals and seven points in 30 contests.
Koltsov's offensive touch didn't suddenly appear when he came to the United States either.
Koltsov played for Belarus in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, but despite wowing the crowd with brilliant skating and tremendous puck rushes, he didn't register a point in the two games he played.
Baby Penguin
At Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League last season, Koltsov registered nine goals and 21 assists in 65 games but, when he was called up to Pittsburgh he lasted only two games with no points and a plus-minus rating of minus-2.
Olczyk put Koltsov, a 1999 first round draft pick, on a line with Straka and Lemieux to see what he what type of offense he could generate. Not being able to finish could have cemented his hands-of-stone reputation.
"I think we're trying to build confidence in players," Olczyk said. "A guy like Koltsov, he has been told in the past that he can't score goals. If you start believing that you can, and are put in a position you can, sometimes it pays off."