Mario Lemieux may have said goodbye to hockey
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Mario Lemieux may have said goodbye the same way he said hello. Lemieux set up Eric Meloche’s game-winning goal with 10.1 seconds left in possibly his final NHL game, and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied for two goals in the closing minutes to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 on Wednesday night.
Lemieux has said for weeks he may not play again next season, especially with the Penguins locked into a multiyear rebuilding mode. He said Wednesday he won’t play in Pittsburgh’s season finale in Washington on Saturday night.
“If this was my last game, I wanted to finish here, in front of the fans here who have supported me,” Lemieux said. “This (season) hasn’t been much fun … for the franchise or myself. It’s been difficult.”
Lemieux owns the Penguins and, even though another retirement would hurt them at the turnstiles, he say he won’t decide until this summer if he will return for a fourth season since coming out of retirement in December 2000.
“I’ll sit down with the right people and see where we want to go with the franchise,” he said.
Asked if he went in thinking it may be the last of a Hall of Fame career that began in 1984, Lemieux said, “Oh, yeah, I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”
That’s why he said, “The timing was perfect,” in reference to Meloche’s goal, which may have come on Lemieux’s final NHL shift. He scored in Boston on his very first shot in 1984, and he had an assist on the first shift of his comeback game against Toronto in 2000, when he ended a 44-month retirement.
However, he may have ended his career with the longest streak without a goal in his career: nine games – or since a March 8 goal against Ottawa. His previous longest streak was eight in 1996-97, his final season before his retirement.
Lemieux had plenty of scoring chances Wednesday, including one on a short breakaway when he couldn’t distance himself enough from defenseman Bret Hedican to get off an uncontested shot against Arturs Irbe.
It initially appeared as if Lemieux may have scored the game’s first goal as he nearly got his stick on Meloche’s shot seven minutes in, but Meloche was credited with the first of his two goals.
In a matchup of the NHL’s two worst teams, the Hurricanes – 0-7-2 in their last nine games – assured themselves of finishing with the NHL’s worst record. They have 61 points with two games remaining, while the Penguins have 65 with one to play, and Pittsburgh owns the tiebreaker.
“It’s not like we were in 17th place and then wound up here in 30th,” Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. “We’ve been battling at the bottom for a long time.”
The Penguins, 2-16-2 in their last 20 games, won for the first time in 11 home games to avoid tying a franchise record for longest home winless streak set in 1983.
Michael Zigomanis, with only one point in 16 previous NHL games, scored once and assisted on another goal in a two-minute span of the second period, but the Hurricanes couldn’t hold the 2-1 lead.
Lemieux briefly left the ice late in the second after Brad DeFauw’s stick caught him flush in the face along the boards. But Lemieux was back on the ice for the power play resulting from the high-sticking penalty.
The near-sellout crowd of 15,718 clearly wanted to see Lemieux get a goal in the third period, cheering whenever he touched the puck and chanting, “Let’s Go, Penguins” and “One More Year.”
But it was defenseman Richard Lintner who tied it with 3:01 remaining, sweeping in a rebound of Martin Straka’s backhander. Zigomanis had put Carolina ahead 2-1 with his second career goal and his first career assist, on Craig MacDonald’s first goal of the season, in a span of 1:52 midway through the second.
MacDonald hadn’t scored a goal since April 12, 2002, and it was only his second goal in 56 games.
Meloche’s second goal came with Ryan Bayda off for a four-minute high-sticking penalty that came shortly after Lintner’s tying goal.
“He put the puck right on my stick,” Meloche said.
NOTES: The Penguins are assured of the fewest points in a full season since 1984-85, Lemieux’s first in the league. … Carolina lost for the first time in its last six in Pittsburgh. … Irbe is 7-22-2 this season. … The Penguins have scored only 23 goals in their last 18 games. It was only the second time during that span they scored as many as three goals.