Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction November 2015
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/3/2015
Mario Lemieux punched his ticket to the 500-Goal Club faster than any player in NHL history who isn’t named Wayne Gretzky. These photo-matched CCM Tacks 652 skates were worn by Super Mario when he recorded his 500th goal with a hat trick in his 605th regular season game on October 26, 1995. Lemieux scored once in the first period and twice in the third to complete his 32nd career hat trick and lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 7-5 comeback win against the New York Islanders. Le Magnifique reached the milestone with his third goal of the game against Tommy Soderstrom at 17:12 of the third period. There is solid game wear on these precious skates, which have ICM Super Steel blades and size “11 1/2 N” stamped inside the back of each heel. “66 Lemieux 500” is handwritten in bold black marker on the bottom of the white plastic undersole of each boot. Based on research and photographic evidence, Lemieux was wearing new skates at the beginning of the 1995-96 season which makes any photo matching to the actual 500th goal game very difficult due to the lack of marks on the skates at that point of the season. As described in our web description, photos of the 500th goal game shows Lemieux wearing what seems to be these exact skates without any game wear, photo matches to actual game wear don’t come until a few weeks later, they skates are photo-matched to the Penguins’ December 13, 1995 game as well as additional photo-matches to a December 22, 1995 game. This museum-worthy piece of hockey history comes with a Classic Auctions LOA and were originally obtained from a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ equipment staff.
The white plastic blade holders have an “11 2/3” / 296 mm” notation.
Photos from his 500th goal game show Lemieux was wearing relatively new skates, which are the same model offered here. In a 500th Goal photo you can see the "66" under the right skate and the opening between the skate holder and skate, and you can also see the copper rivets on the outside of the right skate, though none are a definitive match. Getty image 255578 from Oct. 9th 1995: you see Lemieux’s skates are quite new, with no real visible black marks on the white base of the skate or the skate blade holder. Getty image 478095936 from Oct. 26th 1995: you see Lemieux’s skates are relatively new with no real visible black marks on the white base of the skate, and you also see the opening between the skate blade holder and the bottom of the skate boot and the "66" under the right skate. Photo-matched to Getty images 292356 and 72499732 from Dec. 13th 1995: photo-matched to a number of black marks on the inside of the right skate, and you can also see the “66 Lemieux” handwritten underneath it, as well as black marks on the inside of the left skate, marks on the outside of the left skate and wear to "Tacks" lettering, and marks to the outside of the right skate. Photo-matched to Getty image 72461096 from Dec. 22nd 1995 to a number of black marks on both skates.
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