Lindros Gets Turn in Limelight, and Flyers Head to Cup Finals

PHILADELPHIA — First, it was Mario Lemieux. Now Mark Messier has pointed Eric Lindros toward the Stanley Cup.

Lemieux told Lindros it was his turn after his Philadelphia Flyers beat Lemieux’s Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs.

After the Flyers finished off Messier and the New York Rangers with a 4-2 victory Sunday, giving Philadelphia a 4-1 series win and putting the Flyers in the Cup finals for the first time in 10 years, Messier gave the 24-year-old captain succinct instructions.

“He just said, ‘Go get it,’ ” Lindros said.

Said Messier: “He had a great series right from the first game on. He was a factor everywhere. No one has ever played with the size he has [6 foot 4, 236 pounds] and encompassed it with talent.”

That makes two of hockey’s greatest players who have acknowledged Lindros’ long-awaited arrival as the game’s next dominant player.

Burdened with high expectations since the Flyers traded six players, two draft choices and $15 million to get him in 1992 before he had even played as a pro, Lindros is within four wins of delivering the Cup team owner Ed Snider promised when he made the deal.

“You feel a little bit of pressure [because of the trade], but by no means is that a major part of your desire to win,” Lindros said.

Lindros capped a marvelous series by scoring Philadelphia’s first goal and assisting on Rod Brind’Amour’s first, which put the Flyers ahead for good late in the first period.

Lindros recorded his first playoff hat trick in Game 3, scored the game-winner in Game 4 with seven seconds left to play and had three assists in the series opener.

In contrast, Messier, Lindros’ boyhood idol, was limited to a goal and three assists. Messier, 36, had an assist Sunday, but all his other points came in the Rangers’ lone win, a 5-4 victory in Game 2.

Coach Colin Campbell said Messier’s diminished effectiveness is directly related to the injury bug that cost the Rangers four forwards and severely hampered two of their star players, Wayne Gretzky and Brian Leetch.

“Mark’s ice time went up seven to eight minutes [a game],” Campbell said. “He just can’t do it at his age. It’s not an excuse, just a statement.”

Brind’Amour scored his ninth and 10th goals of the playoffs for the Flyers, who have won all three of their best-of-seven playoff series in five games.

Philadelphia will face the winner of the Western Conference playoff final between Colorado and Detroit. The Red Wings have a 3-2 lead in that series and could eliminate the defending Cup champions in Game 6 tonight.

“You remember people skating around with the Cup,” Brind’Amour said. “As a kid, you picture yourself doing that. That’s what you play for.”

The Flyers, whose Broad Street Bullies won the team’s only two Cups in 1974 and 1975, will make their first appearance in the finals since 1987, when they lost in seven games to Messier and Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers.