Lemieux Is Missed in Game 3 : Stanley Cup: Penguin star suffers back spasms after warming up. North Stars win as Gagner, Smith score second-period goals.

As long as he can remember, Mario Lemieux has dreamed of playing in the Stanley Cup finals.

He has endured a back operation, fought off a serious back infection, and, at times, carried his Pittsburgh Penguins on his sore back through stifling defenses and ferocious body checks to get to the 1991 finals.

So it was hard to believe that the simplest of acts--taking off his skates--had sidelined him for the third game Sunday night at Met Center, a game the Minnesota North Stars went on to win, 3-1.

As a matter of fact, Pittsburgh officials in the press box thought it was a mistake when it was announced just minutes before the opening faceoff that Lemieux had been scratched.

No mistake.

After taking his routine warmup skate before the game, Lemieux entered the Pittsburgh dressing room, sat down in front of his stall, bent over to take off his skates and felt a sharp pain attributed to back spasms.

After a consultation with team physician Charles Burke, Coach Bob Johnson was forced to remove his star center from the lineup.

“It had nothing to do with his operation,” Johnson said. “It’s something you could have or I could have. He didn’t play and that’s it.”

Lemieux left the arena during the game and was unavailable for comment.

Burke said he expected Lemieux to play Tuesday night in Game 4 of the best-of-seven series which Minnesota now leads, 2-1.

It would have been tough enough for the Penguins to win with Lemieux in a building where the North Stars have proven to be almost unbeatable. They are 20-2-2 in Met Center since January and have won eight in a row on their home ice in the playoffs since losing there to the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round.

Without Lemieux, Pittsburgh couldn’t generate enough offense to end the North Stars’ streak. Johnson put veteran Bryan Trottier on Lemieux’s line with Mark Recchi and Bob Errey and went with three lines.

Pittsburgh had only 15 shots on goal in the first two periods, winding up getting outshot by the North Stars, 33-30.

Neither side could do anything on the power play, the North Stars blanked on five chances Sunday, the Penguins on four.

Minnesota entered this series with nearly half of its postseason goals coming on the power play, but the North Stars have been faltered badly in that category in the finals, going one for 19.

Dave Gagner broke a scoreless tie at 7:21 of the second period, putting the puck through Tom Barrasso’s legs from in close after a pass from Mike Modano for his ninth postseason goal.

The Penguins seemed to let up after that opening score and Minnesota took advantage just 33 seconds later, with Bobby Smith scoring his eighth playoff goal to make it 2-0. It was the fifth time in the playoffs that Smith had scored the game-winning goal, tying an NHL record held by Mike Bossy and Jari Kurri.

Phil Bourque got Pittsburgh back in the game 1:23 into the final period with his fifth playoff goal.

But not for long.

Just 38 seconds later, Gaetan Duchesne scored on a rebound off a missed shot by Stewart Gavin to give the North Stars a 3-1 lead.

When it was over, the Penguins tried to downplay the loss of Lemieux, reminding one and all that they had played the first 50 games of the season without him.

“It’s tough to see the big guy out of there,” said teammate Kevin Stevens. “But if Mario can’t play, he can’t play. We won all year without him.

“When we heard he couldn’t play, we wanted to rally. What can you do? You can’t hang your head because Mario’s not out there.”

Then there was Gavin’s reaction.

When he heard Lemieux was out, Gavin said, “It was like Christmas morning.”

NHL Notes

The league has announced that Pittsburgh and Minnesota have been fined $25,000 each for a fight between the North Stars’ Mark Tinordi and the Penguins’ Troy Loney after the end of the second period of Game 2.