Lemieux Scores Eight Points. Although he had been injured in a collision on the ice with a teammate just days earlier, Canadian ice hockey player Mario Lemieux almost single-handedly won game five of the 1989 Stanley Cup Finals. With five goals and three assists, he participated in eight of the ten goals scored by his team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. . Lemieux Scores Eight With 23-year-old center Mario Lemieux in top form, the Pittsburgh Penguins were in their first Stanley Cup playoffs since 1982. After sweeping the New York Rangers in four games in the division semifinals, Pittsburgh's next stop in the 1989 postseason was a second-round meeting with the Philadelphia Flyers, a roughand-tumble unit that had just upset the Patrick Division-champion Washington Capitals in their playoff opener. The Penguins, slight favorites in the series, won two of the first three games. After splitting the first two contests at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena, the Penguins won a thrilling overtime battle at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on April 21. Lemieux continued his superb play, scoring six goals in the first seven games of the postseason. Although down two games to one, the Flyers were playing a tougher brand of hockey than Pittsburgh. And they were gunning for Lemieux. "If the opportunity is there, you have to punish the guy. That's our trademark," Philadelphia center Ron Sutter told the New York Times. "We're not going to let Mario off the hook because of who he is. I hope he finds himself looking over his shoulder from now on." The Flyers continued to target Lemieux during game four at the Spectrum on Sunday, April 23. Defensemen Kjell Samuelsson and Jay Wells issued violent checks to the Pittsburgh center throughout the contest. Lemieux may have been looking over his shoulder for opposing skaters, but he wasn't anticipating the collision with his own teammate Randy Cunneyworth. With Lemieux's back turned, the two careened into each other near the red line. Lemieux's head slammed into Cunneyworth's shoulder, giving Lemieux a nasty case of whiplash. He immediately left the game, which Philadelphia won, 4-1, to even the series at two victories apiece. Lemieux woke up Monday morning with his neck in knots and his head still ringing. At first, team doctors offered little hope of him returning for game five on the Penguins' home ice. "I wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't go," head coach Gene Ubriaco told the New York Times. "It'd be a serious blow. Then we'd really be looking for some character to be shown by the other players." On game day, Tuesday, April 25, Lemieux sat out the morning practice. With the help of doctors and trainers, his condition improved by the hour. At 7:34 PM, he glided onto the ice at the Civic Arena to the delight of 16,025 fans. He skated gingerly during pregame warm-ups, testing his range of motion as teammates and coaches looked on with concern. Any worries about Lemieux's condition evaporated 2 minutes 15 seconds into the game. Loose on a breakaway, he backhanded the puck past Flyers goalie Ron Hextall to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead. "Once I got the first goal," Lemieux later said, "I thought we could have a big night." The night got bigger 1 minute 30 seconds later when Lemieux deflected a pass sailing across the front of the goal into the net. A mere five minutes went by before he victimized Hextall for a third time, scooping up a loose puck and slapping it between the goalie's heavily padded legs. Lemieux then tied a Stanley Cup record with his fourth goal of the period. Sneaking behind Hextall, he lifted up the goalie's stick, snared the puck, spun around, and flipped it inside the far post to make the score 5-1. After just 20 minutes of play, Lemieux was one shy of the playoff record for most goals in a game. Lemieux didn't reach the net during the second period, but he did help orchestrate all three Pittsburgh scores. The three assists moved his point total to seven. Lemieux closed out his miraculous one-man show with an empty-net goal in the final minute. With five goals and three assists, he had participated in eight of Pittsburgh's ten goals. "He's a great player who we simply gave too much ice to," said Hextall. "We definitely didn't expect it from him. He was hurt. How can you expect him to come out like that?" Lemieux tied five all-time Stanley Cup records: Eight points in one game, set by Patrik Sundstrom of the New Jersey Devils in 1988 Four points in one period, accomplished 11 times (as of 1996) Five goals in one game, set by Philadelphia's Reggie Leach (1976), Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs (1976), and Newsy Lalonde (1919) and Maurice Richard (1944) of the Montréal Canadiens Four goals in the first period, set by Philadelphia's Tim Kerr in 1985 Three assists in one period, accomplished 62 times (as of 1996) After the game, Ubriaco said: "That's probably the best he's ever been at both ends of the ice. He's been doing enough as far as we were concerned. But he wants to do more." "I tried to come back and hurt them," Lemieux told the New York Times. "I do that by scoring goals and getting assists. It's the best I can do." Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
