NHL’s All-Star Game Is Lemieux’s Ice Show

Mario Lemieux, taking another step toward replacing Wayne Gretzky as the preeminent player in the National Hockey League, turned the NHL All-Star Game into his own personal showcase Tuesday night.

In a record-setting performance, the Pittsburgh Penguin center had a hand in every goal for the Wales Conference in a 6-5 overtime victory over the Campbell Conference before a crowd of 17,878 at the St. Louis Arena.

Lemieux scored three goals, including the game-winner 1 minute 8 seconds into the sudden-death overtime period.

“I got a little lucky tonight,” a modest Lemieux said afterward.

But that was not the case.

Mats Naslund of the Montreal Canadiens also set a record, assisting on all three of Lemieux’s goals, as well as two others.

And Luc Robitaille of the Kings had two goals and one assist for the Campbell Conference, including a goal with 3:32 left in regulation time that sent the game into overtime.

But those performances were dwarfed by Lemieux’s.

In 38 previous All-Star games, nobody had produced more than four points. Lemieux had six.

“Awesome,” said losing Coach Glen Sather of the Edmonton Oilers.

Winning Coach Mike Keenan of the Philadelphia Flyers called it “a scary performance by one individual.”

And Gretzky, overtaken by the 22-year-old Lemieux in the scoring race last month when he missed 13 games with a knee injury, said:

“You don’t want to lose the hockey game, but I almost started cheering for him there at the end.”

Lemieux, who also was the MVP of the All-Star Game when he had 2 goals and 1 assist in a 6-4 Wales victory as a rookie in 1985, led the Wales Conference to its fourth straight victory over the Campbell Conference.

“He’s so good,” Naslund said, “that I don’t think I’d embarrass my teammates in Montreal by saying he’s the best player I’ve ever played with. I’d like to play with him every night. He’s a pleasure to play with.”

Also, a pleasure to watch.

Each of Lemieux’s goals was a thing of beauty.

On the first, with 8:26 left in the second period, he took a rebound off the end boards, circled behind the net and, stretching his 6-feet 4-inch frame, tucked the puck into the lower right corner of the net so quickly that goaltender Mike Vernon appeared to be standing still on the left side.

“There probably isn’t another man alive who could have done that,” said Sather, who has coached Gretzky for 8 1/2 seasons. “It takes a tremendous amount of talent and eye-hand coordination to do that, especially the way he was stretched out.

“And he made it look so easy.”

Lemieux put the Wales All-Stars ahead, 5-4, with 11:53 left in regulation, holding a pass from Naslund on his stick to the left of the net as Vernon dove, then lifting the puck into the upper right corner of the net.

“He’s smooth when he gets the scoring chances,” Naslund said. “He doesn’t panic.”

In the overtime, Lemieux took a pass from Naslund in the slot, deked Vernon to the ice and slipped a back-handed shot through the goaltender’s legs.

As is usually the case in these games, little defense was played.

Sather, though, said nothing would have stopped Lemieux on this night.

“I don’t know whether you could have checked Mario with six guys tonight,” Sather said. “You probably could have put a tent around him and he would have found a way to score.”

Sather said Lemieux’s performance may have an affect on the Oilers.

“I think it’s a great motivating factor because I’ve got a guy who wears the flip side of those numbers, and he’s the best hockey player the world has ever seen,” Sather said.

He was talking, of course, about Gretzky, who wears No. 99.

Lemieux wears No. 66.

“I think this is going to keep (Gretzky) going a lot longer,” Sather said.

Robitaille was voted by fans into the game to start alongside Gretzky, his boyhood idol.

But, after the first shift of the game, Coach Glen Sather put Robitaille on a line with center Denis Savard of the Chicago Blackhawks and winger Glenn Anderson of the Edmonton Oilers.

“I wanted to put somebody with Savard who could skate and somebody who could score,” Sather said. “And Anderson can skate and Robitaille can score. He’s a natural scorer--a gifted, talented hockey player.”

Savard, Anderson and Robitaille turned out to be the most effective line for the Campbell Conference.

Robitaille scored twice and assisted on a goal by Savard.

“He gave me some great passes,” Robitaille said of Savard. “If I wouldn’t have put them in, he would have been mad at me.”

All-Star Notes The death last Saturday of Barclay Plager, a former coach and player for the St. Louis Blues, cast a pall over the game. Plager, who battled cancer for more than three years, was to have been an honorary captain for the Campbell Conference team. Before the game, a moment of silence was observed and Plager’s brother, Bob, and two sons, Kevin and Kelly, were given sustained, emotional ovations by the capacity crowd. . . . When Luc Robitaille was voted by fans into the starting lineup for the Campbell Conference, the Kings announced that he was the first King so honored since the “Triple Crown Line” of Dave Taylor, Marcel Dionne and Charlie Simmer was voted into the starting lineup for the 1981 game. Actually, Taylor also was voted by writers into the starting lineup for the 1982 game.