Alliedassault - World Cup

Super Mario drops the gloves, comes to defence of Martin Brodeur

Pierre Lebrun
Canadian Press

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

[img]http://media.canada.com/cp/hockey/20040831/h083124A.jpg[/img]
Team Canada captain Mario Lemieux goes after Team USA Steve Konowalchuk. (CP /Ryan Remiorz)

MONTREAL (CP) - Mario Lemieux shrugged off a moment few will ever forget.

The 38-year-old superstar raised a few eyebrows, not to mention cut the air supply to the Canadian coaching staff, when he dropped the gloves and went after American forward Steve Konowalchuk in Tuesday night's 2-1 win to kick off the World Cup of Hockey. Lemieux had seen enough of American forwards crashing the net and going after Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur.

"They did do that a few times," Lemieux said after the intense victory. "But I was just the closest guy to Konowalchuk, so I went for him.

"He landed on Marty, so somebody had to jump in."

Lemieux barely had a grasp of Konowalchuk before linemate Jarome Iginla jumped in to relieve Super Mario of his tough guy duties.

"That really fires you up," Iginla said of seeing the Hall of Famer drop the gloves. "It's a little surprising, but he competes. You can tell when he's upset and he was a little upset tonight."

Konowalchuk downplayed the incident.

"It just started as a scrum," he said. "Brodeur pulled me in the net, so I gave Brodeur a little shot, then Mario came in, then Iginla came in, and that's how it happened. ...

"I guess if you push the goalie, you expect somebody to come," he added. "Whether it's him or anybody else, it doesn't matter. In a game like this, everyone has to do things like that."

Either way, Lemieux's decision to go after Konowalchuk lit a fire on the Canadian bench.

"They were in Marty's face all night," said centre Brad Richards. "Mario sent a message that it was enough. He took control of it.

"That's the leadership that's going to show us the way."

Vincent Lecavalier, who worshipped Lemieux growing up in Quebec, was also proud of his captain.

"It shows he's ready to play," Lecavalier said. "It shows what kind of leader he is.

"We want to protect Marty. They were charging the net, trying anything to get back in the game."

During the same fracas, veteran defenceman Scott Niedermayer fought American centre Jeff Halpern, another surprising sight. Niedermayer certainly isn't known for the fisticuffs.

"In hindsight, it probably wasn't the smartest move, we were down to five defencemen (because of the injury to Ed Jovanovski), it was tough enough as it was with the five of us," Niedermayer said. "It was kind of stupid but ... he just kept going and wanted to do something and eventually wore me down and we went."

Lemieux was no worse for wear after the incident and pronounced himself fit to play in Wednesday night's game against Slovakia, showing he's come a long way since recovering from hip surgery seven months ago.

Playing back-to-back games has usually been a no-no in the NHL with Pittsburgh, but this is the World Cup and Lemieux is fired up.