Pittsburgh Post



April 7, 1985

By: Chandler

          


WIZARD WITH THE PUCK


Mario Lemieux from the Pittsburgh Penguins has just won the prestigious Calder Memorial Trophy, which is awarded annually to the leagues best rookie. In his first year with the team he scored an even 100 points with 43 goals and 57 assists, the highest scorer on the team.  In French Lemieux means the best. Since the day he first stepped on the ice, hockey star Mario Lemieux has lived up to his promise of his name.

 

 

Mario was raised in the Canadian province of Quebec. He and his brothers pretended that their basement was a hockey rink and would slide about their stocking feet, using wooden kitchen spoons as hockey sticks and a bottle cap as a puck. In the United States, most hockey players compete in high school and college before turning professional. But in Canada, hockey is organized differently. The best young players move on to compete in junior hockey, highly competitive leagues primarily for teenagers. Mario Lemieux began his Major Junior career at age 16, joining the Montreal based Laval Voisins.

 

 

The Penguins had watched Mario closely in the Major Juniors. On June 9,1984 he was selected in the first round of the NHL draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins opened the season on the road on October 11, 1984. On Mario’s very first shift the puck deflected off the boards. Lemieux gathered it and took off like a rocket, switched the puck from his forehand to his backhand and beat the goalie. He had scored only 2:59 into the game! Although the team did not make the playoffs this year, the best part is that the season is now over. But Mario Lemieux is not a rookie anymore.