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Sunday, February 09, 2003

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The way Mario Lemieux and the Penguins chased Brad Ference around Mellon Arena Thursday night, one might imagine he would wear stormtrooper's gear for the Panthers' next visit here March 16.

"No, I'm sure all this is going to go by the wayside," he told the Canadian Press the next day. "At that point, both teams should be right in the playoff hunt, and neither can afford games like that."

Told that Lemieux accused him of regularly taking cheap shots, Ference replied, "I've only played against him three times in my career. I just think it was the heat of the moment. He was intense, and I was intense. It's the game of hockey. Stuff like that happens."

Ference emerged from various attacks by Lemieux, Ian Moran and Steve McKenna relatively unscathed, with only a rope-style burn around his neck from having his sweater tugged by Lemieux.

He also emerged as a bit of a celebrity, as friends and family in Alberta have been reminding him.

"They said it's been on TV all day," Ference said. "Maybe later on, after the career is done, I can just sit back and it will be a funny memory."

Florida Coach Mike Keenan just won't let go of the bitterness of losing the 1992 Stanley Cup final to the Penguins, especially his Blackhawks' 5-4 loss in Game 1 after blowing a 4-1 lead. He seized this week's hot topic -- diving -- to bring up again his insistence that Lemieux took a dive on a trip by Steve Smith in the final minute to set up his winning goal. "Mario was coming through the neutral zone and took a dive that put them on a power play," he told the Toronto Sun. "We never recovered from that, so I'm all in favor of anything we can do to take it out of the game."

Bad enough for the Hurricanes that they dumped Sami Kapanen for two prospects, with General Manager Jim Rutherford promising the start of a rebuilding process. Worse still, possibly, that Coach Paul Maurice made an enemy of All-Star Jeff O'Neill with a grueling practice Thursday reserved for seven players singled out for punishment. One of them, Craig MacDonald, collapsed. O'Neill, another of them, fumed to Raleigh reporters: "It's a joke. If that's how he wants to carry on ... whatever. I don't even care. I'm playing for my teammates."

The Islanders' injury run has has all but taken them out of the trade mix for Alexei Kovalev or any player of prominence. With Kenny Jonsson, one of their valuable defensemen, adding to his string of concussions Tuesday, Mike Milbury's hand is thin.

It remains to be seen how Lemieux's plea for more public support at games will be received here. In Ottawa, Rod Bryden, the man trying to buy the Senators back out of bankruptcy, pulled it off in grand style. Since Bryden pleaded with the fans and corporations to step forward and save the franchise, seven of eight games at the Corel Centre have drawn 18,000 or more.

The NHL's players, like too many professional athletes, often get too caught up in their world to recognize where it ranks in relation to the real world. Example of the year came from Bobby Holik in describing to New York reporters how the Rangers have to start playing a good game, not just talking one: "You know, like Colin Powell or Saddam Hussein, everybody says something. But until we as the United States do something about it, it doesn't matter what we say or the United Nations says, it's a lot of talk. It's the same thing."