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Monday, February 12, 2001
Super Mario feeling good enough to play
Associated Press
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ST. PAUL, Minn. – Mario Lemieux
is encouraged about his
back and expects to be in good shape in a few days.
The Pittsburgh Penguins star was on the ice for less than 20
minutes of his team's 5-4 overtime victory Saturday.
He said his back felt better before Sunday's game, a 4-2 loss to the
Minnesota Wild, than it did before Saturday's game against New
Jersey.
"That's a good sign it should go away in a couple days," he
said.
Lemieux was held without a point for the second time in 19 games
since his comeback from a 3½-year retirement Dec. 27.
Lemieux said his back began to bother him during practice
Friday. He also had back problems when he played from 1990-97.
"It's been a concern for the past 10 years," Lemeiux said.
"It's a matter of taking care of it, and then I should be fine.
Hopefully, I can take care of my back the next few days and get
back to where I was."
Lemieux has scored 35 points in his 18 games since returning
after a 3½-year retirement.
Lemieux was in so much discomfort Saturday that he had to have someone tie his skates, as he often did during his recurring bouts with back pain from 1990-97.
"That was like the old days," said Lemieux, who played nearly 20 minutes Saturday despite the pain.
The six-time NHL scoring champion cut short his career at age 31 in 1997, mostly because he was weary of trying to play with a sore back. He missed nearly half the 1990-91 season following back surgery and most of the 1993-94 season after an operation to repair a herniated muscle in his back.
Lemieux missed a quarter of the 1992-93 season with Hodgkin's disease, or cancer of the lymph nodes.
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Wild knock off Penguins; Lemieux scoreless but 'OK'
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