Is St. Petersburg Really a Hockey Town? 25,581 Watch Penguins Beat Kings, 5-3

A crowd of 25,581, more than 4,500 above the National Hockey League single-game record, turned out Wednesday night to see the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Kings, 5-3, in an exhibition game at the Suncoast Dome.

The game was billed as a meeting between the NHL’s top two scorers, the Kings’ Wayne Gretzky and Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux. Gretzky, the league’s all-time leading scorer, had a goal, but Lemieux, recovering from back surgery, did not play.

The NHL attendance record is 21,019, set in Detroit against Pittsburgh on Nov. 25, 1983.

St. Petersburg and nearby Tampa are among the 10 hopefuls for an expansion franchise. The NHL will add one or two teams by 1992.