The Penguins and Flyers faced off in Game 5 of a deadlocked Patrick Division Final. It would be a night of hockey history, thanks to "Le Magnifique":
At 2:15 of the
first period, Lemieux snuck behind the Philly D, deked Ron Hextall with the slightest
of fakes and backhanded the puck into an empty net to make it 1-0. Ninety
seconds later, standing completely unmolested at the side of the Flyer net,
Mario took a Bob Errey pass and directed it home for a 2-0 Pens lead. Just
before the seven-minute mark, Lemieux again gained a step on the suddenly
slothful Flyers’ defense and, fading to his right side, rifled a pinpoint wrist
shot to the far side of Hextall’s net, beating him cleanly.
The Igloo
exploded in joy. Lemieux had clearly taken his game to another level and the
Flyers seemed helpless to stop him. After Errey made it 4-0 only 12 seconds
after Lemieux’s hat trick goal and ex-Pen Mike Bullard answered back for the
Flyers, Mario scored his craftiest goal on the night. Seeing Hextall venture
behind his net for a loose puck, Lemieux swooped in and, with his long reach,
stick-checked the big goalie, took the puck around the net and swept it into
the open cage.
Lemieux would
add three assists and an empty-net goal to tie the NHL single-game playoff
records for goals with five and points with eight, leading the Pens to a 10-7
win. He also tied a few single-period NHL post-season records: most goals
(four), most points (four), and assists (three). His final goal also set a new
Penguin mark for career playoff goals at 10, one more than Jean Pronovost.
Incredibly, it had taken Lemieux less than two playoff rounds to accomplish the
feat!
“He elevated his
game to the point where he just showed everybody else how much better than us
he can be,” observed Tom Barrasso.
Even the Flyers
were in awe of the display.
“I’ve never seen
an individual performance like that,” said coach Paul Holmgren. “We just got in
front of that snowball with the Number 66 on it early, and when he gets
rolling, it’s a scary thing.”
Excerpted from The Pittsburgh Penguins: The First 25 Years by Greg Enright, available at bit.ly/2OGZeYO or amzn.to/3cna4N4
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