Penguins’ Playoff Return Almost a One-Man Effort

The last time the Pittsburgh Penguins qualified for the National Hockey League playoffs, Mario Lemieux was 16 years old and playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

How instrumental was he in leading the Penguins back into the playoffs? Consider: He led the team in goals with 85, assists with 114, points with 199, game-winning goals with eight, power-play goals with 31 and short-handed goals with 13.

As Newsday’s Helene Elliott pointed out, Lemieux’s goal and point totals were the fourth-highest ever amassed by an NHL player, “and the highest by anyone not named Wayne Gretzky.”

Even so, Lemieux did surpass Gretzky in one area. He scored or assisted on an astonishing 57% of Pittsburgh’s 347 goals this season. In Gretzky’s record 215-point season in 1985-86, he was involved in slightly more than 50% of the Edmonton Oilers’ 426 goals.

Trivia: Of the 52 previous Masters champions, only one has managed to win the title two years in a row. Who and when?

Dubious honor: Basil McRae of the Minnesota North Stars was the NHL’s busiest brawler during the regular season, earning 30 major penalties for fighting.

That was three more than the Buffalo Sabres’ Mike Hartman, the Detroit Red Wings’ Joe Kocur and “defending champion” Jay Miller, who split his season between the Kings and the Boston Bruins.

A baseball first: Exactly two decades ago today, the Montreal Expos played their first regular-season game--the first international contest in major league history.

The Expos won that game, 10-9, at Shea Stadium, but their opponent, the Miracle Mets, went on to win the World Series.

The price was right: After the annual dinner of Masters champions held earlier in the week, one of the honored guests was asked if he had had a good time.

Spain’s Seve Ballesteros nodded.

What was memorable about it?

“It was free,” Ballesteros replied.

Trivia answer: Jack Nicklaus in 1965 and ’66.

Quotebook: Said Bruce Hurst, after being pounded by the San Francisco Giants in his debut with the San Diego Padres: “My target area was from dugout to dugout. It wasn’t pretty. . . . Maybe next time I’ll have a little better idea where the (catcher’s) glove is.”