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When Sports Were Played: Finally, the Penguins’ Cup is full

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The “When Sports Were Played” takes us back to May 25, 1991, a great day for hockey, when Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins routed the Minnesota North Stars to win the Stanley Cup. The O-R was there to recount what to that point was the biggest night in Penguins history.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Pittsburgh hockey fans have been loosening them for seven years now, but Saturday night they finally unbuckled the seat belt on their imagination.

At last, they could chuckle at the memory of Ed Westfall, shrug off the mention of Mike Crombeen, push the vision of Uwe Krupp out of their minds. They could forget they ever heard of Gordy Laxton and Hartland Monahan.

The Penguins had become Stanley Cup champions.

Captain Mario Lemieux sparked another first-period blitz with a shorthanded goal and set up three other goals, and Tom Barrasso made 39 saves for his first playoff shutout as the Penguins defeated the Minnesota North Stars, 8-0, in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals here at the Met Center.

The Penguins, who qualified for the playoffs only once in the eight seasons prior to this one, became the first team in 20 years to win the Stanley Cup the year after missing the playoffs.

It was the drafting of Lemieux in 1984 that gave the team license to dream, and in the instant he lifted the Cup over his head Saturday, he and his teammates buried 23 years of mediocrity.

Lemieux also got his hands on the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs, having scored 16 goals and 44 points in Pittsburgh’s eight-week odyssey to the top of the hockey world.

Lemieux’s short-handed effort was his fifth goal of the series and seemed to stun the Cinderella North Stars, who were trying to become the third team in the NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with a sub-.500 record. Lemieux grabbed Larry Murphy’s long pass off the boards, raced past Brian Bellows and then deked goaltender John Casey before slipping a backhander past him.

Minnesota was playing four-on-three at a time.

The North Stars had seen this horror show before. They were scorched for three goals in the opening 2:58 in Game 4 and four goals in the opening 13:41 in Game 5. This time, the Penguins drilled three goals behind Casey in the opening 13:14, all coming from the special teams.

Defenseman Ulf Samuelson fired a shot from the left point past Casey at the two-minute mark with Neal Broten in the penalty box and Lemieux’s, right when Joe Mullen scored the first of his two goals by converting Kevin Stevens’ perfect pass from the right wing circle on the power play.

As he did in Game 5, Minnesota coach Bob Gainey pulled Casey in favor of Brian Hayward to start the second period. But unlike the last two games, the Penguins didn’t stop coming.

Left-wing Bob Errey made it 4-0 at 13:15 of the second when he tapped in the wraparound attempt of Jaromir Jagr. By this point, the North Stars were gambling, and Pittsburgh made them pay.

Center Ron Francis took a pass from Mullen and scored on a breakaway 1:13 later at 14:28. And Mullen took a pass from Stevens and scored on another breakaway at 18:44.

Rookie defenseman Jim Paek made it 7-0 by converting Lemieux’s two-on-one pass at 1:19 of the third period, and Murphy scored at 13:45 after takings pass from Lemieux.

Right wing Mark Recchi, who led all NHL playoff scorers for much of the spring, left the game with 4:42 to play in the second after taking a vicious hit from former teammate Jim Johnson behind the Minnesota net.

The lopsided score could not hide the fact Barrasso was very sharp early in the game. Questionable for Saturday’s game after suffering a slight groin pool Thursday in Game 4, Barrasso made fine saves on Stewart Gavin, Ulf Dhalen, Mark Tinordi and Dave Gagne in the opening period to help set the tone for the game.

But injuries are nothing new to the Penguins, who played without Barrasso, defenseman Samuelson, Paul Coffey and Peter Taglianetti during the playoffs but never panicked.

They didn’t panic either after losing the first game of each playoff series, something only one other Cup-winning team had ever done. Opening game losses to New Jersey, Washington, Boston and Minnesota just gave the Penguins something around which to rally.

Facing elimination against the Devils, Pittsburgh won the last two games of the series to advance to the Patrick Division finals. There, they beat the Capitals in five games to win two playoff rounds in one year for the first time in their history.

They dropped the opening two games of the Wells Conference finals against the Bruins, then reeled off four straight victories against the team that had advanced to the Cup final in two of the previous three seasons.

They fell behind the North Stars, 2-1, but ripped off three straight wins to earn the right to be called hockey’s best team.

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