Lemieux Floats . . . Also Stings : Penguin Rookie Leads 6-4 Victory for Wales, Named All-Star MVP

Earlier this season, Don Cherry, the former Boston Bruin coach who currently is a TV hockey broadcaster in Canada, criticized wunderkind Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins for concentrating too much on offense at the expense of his defense.

“He’s the biggest floater in the National Hockey League,” Cherry said of Lemieux, who was the first player selected in the 1984 NHL draft.

If Lemieux was floating Tuesday night, it didn’t stop him in the NHL All-Star game.

Lemieux, a 19-year-old rookie center, stole the spotlight from established stars like Wayne Gretzky, scoring two goals and assisting on one to lead the Wales Conference to a 6-4 win over the Campbell Conference stars before a sellout crowd of 16,683 at the Olympic Saddledome.

“That was for him (Cherry). . . .,” Lemieux said of his performance. “The Penguins asked me to play offense and not care about my defensive play.”

Lemieux, who was playing in his first All-Star game, was named the most valuable player and won a new sports car.

“It’s a big feeling to win the MVP award with guys like Gretzky and (Mike) Bossy out there,” Lemieux said. “I didn’t expect to win it.”

Lemieux, who drives a truck, said he will give the car to his brother Robert, 20, who works in a Montreal grocery store.

“I guess I’m going to have to give it to him, because he asked me for it,” Lemieux said.

Lemieux, who has 22 goals and 45 assists in 38 games for the Penguins, was added to the team by Coach Al Arbour. But some observers felt that Pittsburgh wing Warren Young should have been selected instead. Young is the leading rookie goal scorer in the NHL with 31 goals.

“Warren could have been in my place, too,” Lemieux admitted. “When I left Pittsburgh, he just told me to bring back the car.”

Lemieux, who was the top junior hockey player in Canada last season, was supposed to be the best player to come into the league since Gretzky. Lemieux has said that he wears the number 66 because it is 99 (Grezky’s number) upside down.

“I wouldn’t ever compare Gretzky to Lemieux,” said Edmonton Coach Glen Sather, the coach of the Campbell team. “But they are both good players. I think he (Lemieux) is going to be a great player.”

Said Gretzky, who had one goal and almost got another to tie the game in the last minute: “Mario played a great game. He was really deserving of the award.”

King center Marcel Dionne, who scored the first goal for the Campbell squad, said Lemieux has the potential to become one of the top players in the game.

“He’s everything they ever said he was,” Dionne said. “I had never heard too much about him until last year. When I first met him, it was at the airport in Los Angeles and I didn’t know who he was. I thought he was a football player because he’s so big.”

With the score tied at 2-2 after the first period, the 6-foot 4-inch, 200-pound Lemieux set up the go-ahead goal when he fed Anders Hedberg of the New York Rangers with 6:14 left in the second period.

Lemieux gave the Wales stars a two-goal lead with 2:13 left in the second period when he scored his first goal off a pass from Kirk Muller of the New Jersey Devils.

However, Gretzky, who had been held scoreless in the first two periods, scored a goal at 10:09 of the third period to help the Campbell stars close the score to 4-3. Left wing Mike Krushelnyski of the Oilers set up the play when he stole the puck from defenseman Scott Stevens of the Washington Capitals and passed it to Gretzky in front of the net. Gretzky beat goalie Pelle Lindbergh of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Just one minute later, however, Lemieux scored his second goal on a beautiful play to give the Wales stars a 5-3 lead.

Asked to describe his goal, Lemieux said: “I took the puck at the red line from Ray Bourque and I went down the ice and just shot it. I didn’t even look at it.

“I was very nervous before the game because I didn’t know what to expect. But Ray Bourque told me to just go out and work and it would be all right.”

But the Campbell stars cut the lead to 5-4 with 2:51 left on a goal by defenseman Randy Carlyle of the Winnipeg Jets.

Sather pulled goalie Grant Fuhr in the last minute to get an extra skater on the ice, and his team almost tied the game.

“I wanted to win, but I’m not going to stay awake having nightmares over this,” Sather said.

Gretzky almost tied the score at 5-5 with 26 seconds left when he came around from behind the net and and shot, but Lindbergh made a diving save.

“I thought it was in but maybe I was hoping too much,” Gretzky said. “I thought he was behind the line, when he made the save.”

Said Lindbergh: “I didn’t really see what happened. I just threw myself down. I knew he was behind the net and I knew he was going to try and come around and score.”

Mike Gartner of the Washington Capitals scored an empty-net goal with nine seconds left to secure the win.

The last few NHL All-Star games had been wide open shoot-outs, but this one started out very slowly.

Center Ron Francis of the Hartford Whalers scored the first goal of the game when he beat starting goalie goalie Andy Moog of the Edmonton Oilers on the stick side only 1 minute 40 seconds into the game.

Right wing Tim Kerr of the Philadelphia Flyers scored at 5:31 to give the Wales stars a 2-0 lead.

But the Campbells scored two straight goals to tie the score at 2-2 at the end of the period.

Dionne scored at 6:33 when he beat starting goalie Tom Barrasso of the Buffalo Sabres on the short side on a shot from the top of the circle.

With 3:05 left in the period, Miroslav Frycer of the Toronto Maple Leafs took a pass from Krushelnyski and tied it at 2-2.