Canada Cup : Lemieux, Gretzky Send Soviets Back to USSR With 6-5 Loss

Mario Lemieux scored with 1:26 left in the game on a pass from Wayne Gretzky Tuesday night to give Canada a 6-5 victory over the Soviet Union and the championship of the Canada Cup hockey tournament.

All games in the best-of-three final were decided by 6-5. The Soviets won the first game in overtime, the Canadians pulling even with a win in double-overtime.

The goal was Lemieux’s 11th of the tournament and second game-winner of the championship series. He also scored at 10:07 of the second overtime Sunday night to give Canada a 6-5 victory.

The assist was Gretzky’s 18th of the tournament and 21st point. Lemieux led the tournament in goals.

The crowd of 17,037 gave Team Canada a standing ovation through the final 1 1/2 minutes.

Dale Hawerchuk set up the deciding goal by winning a faceoff in his own end, and Lemieux went around defenseman Igor Kravchuk along the boards. Lemieux passed ahead to Gretzky, who carried deep into the Soviets’ zone on the left wing. Gretzky dropped the puck to Lemieux, who snapped a shot past goaltender Sergei Mylnikov.

Mylnikov made 40 saves, and Canadian Grant Fuhr had 18 saves.

Soviet Aleksandr Semak made it 5-5 at 12:21 of the third period.

Hawerchuk scored with 4:28 left in the second period to give Canada a 5-4 lead, completing a comeback from a 3-0 first-period deficit.

Canadian goals by Larry Murphy and Brent Sutter just 106 seconds apart in the second period tied the score, 4-4.

The Soviets took a 1-0 lead 26 seconds into the game on a goal by Sergei Markov and upped it to 3-0 with 10:10 left in the first period on goals by Alexei Gusarov and Viacheslav Fetisov.

Rick Tocchet scored on a power play at 9:50, and Brian Propp made it 3-2 at 15:23. With 28 seconds left, Andrei Khomutov restored the two-goal lead.