Friday, April 3, 1998 | 9:08 a.m.
Patrice Lefebvre is trying to turn a season to forget into one to remember.
The all-star right winger has been with the Las Vegas Thunder since its inception in 1993 and was a key component to its early success.
Lefebvre was here when Las Vegas won the IHL regular-season championship in its inaugural campaign and again in 1995-96. He is the most prolific scorer in team history. He also is the most popular and highest paid Thunder player.
But there has been no glory this season. The Thunder (32-35-9) has set virtually every record for franchise futility, going under .500 for the first time and losing seven straight games. Head coach Chris McSorley resigned last month.
"It's been mentally tough, losing all those games in a row after being part of a winning team all the time," Lefebvre said. "It takes a toll on you."
Through it all, however, Lefebvre quietly has posted some of the best numbers in Thunder history.
Entering this weekend's road games -- San Antonio today at 5:30 p.m. and Houston Saturday at 5 p.m. -- the IHL's scoring leader is approaching his own single-season scoring mark. Lefebvre notched 114 points and 78 assists in 1995-96.
With six regular-season games left, Lefebvre has 107 points on 25 goals and 82 assists.
"Records are records. It's a personal satisfaction," he said. "You can ask anyone who owns a record, and they'll say it's recognition of a job well done. But you don't get records by yourself. You always have teammates helping you, and that's what it's all about.
"It would be fun to break my own record of two seasons ago. You always strive to be the best you can be, but I try not to think too much about it."
As is the case with most assist artists, Lefebvre would much rather win games than score points.
Despite the gaudy numbers he has put up, Lefebvre never has come close to a league scoring title. Even when he recorded 114 he finished a distant fourth to Rob Brown, who scored 143 for Chicago.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to win the scoring championship," Lefebvre said. "It would be a great personal reward. But if I start thinking about it things won't happen."
Lefebvre is listed at 5-foot-6, actually is shorter, but plays much larger. He either has scored or assisted on 44.2 percent of the Thunder's goals this season. His performance didn't even drop when then-leading goal scorer Jesse Belanger went down with a serious knee injury and missed 20 games.
"For a span of 20 to 30 games, Jesse Belanger, Ken Quinney and myself went on fire," Lefebvre said. "We got momentum. But then the bad luck struck us. Damage got done.
"I just tried to go out there and do my best."
The injuries kept coming and so did the struggles.
Second-line left wing Jeff Christian went down with a serious back injury. Defenseman Sergei Yerkovich was lost for a few weeks to the Olympics. No. 1 goaltender Manny Legace missed time with a pulled hamstring and later a concussion.
The Thunder responded by going 3-16-2 between Feb. 4 and March 22.
"I had never been on a team that would lose like that," Lefebvre said.
Neither had McSorley, who decided he couldn't take it any more and resigned under pressure March 6. Two weeks earlier, Lefebvre had helped lobby to save McSorley's job, and the Thunder announced it would retain its coach at least until the end of the season.
"I think Chris put a great system in the team. He just came up short," said Lefebvre, who claimed McSorley's decision finally lifted the cloud surrounding the team.
"Everybody's mind was elsewhere for a while. In the two weeks with all the talks about Chris being fired, the players were always wondering what was going to happen. Once it was done, the guys said 'That's the way it's going to be now. Let's turn the page.'"
Lefebvre said the Thunder learned volumes about itself during the tumult.
"The good part about the team is, as much as we went in a slump and experienced that losing streak, we still had a great bunch of guys," he said. "At times, when teams start losing they start to point fingers. That never happened on our team. It showed the character we had."
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