Bruins rally, catch Senators for first point

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 10/6/2000

ew names, new faces, a new season.

Going into this year, the Bruins promised a fresh start, a pumped-up attitude, and resilience.

Last night, in their 2000-01 season opener, they demonstrated it in a 4-4 overtime tie with the Ottawa Senators at the FleetCenter.

It's likely the biggest difference between this edition and the last is resilience. Last year's injury-riddled club seemed to find a way to lose.

The Bruins rebounded from a 2-0 deficit after the first period and rallied from 4-3 to finish even.

''They got a couple of goals on us quick and compared to last year, probably we would've folded and said that was it,'' said coach Pat Burns. ''I thought the team really battled back. We had some good, positive energy and we did come back.''

The Bruins didn't look all that sharp early as defenseman Chris Phillips scored on the power play at 3:55 and center Radek Bonk (one goal, two assists) tallied one at even strength at the 12:23 mark to give Ottawa the 2-0 advantage heading into the first intermission.

Goalie Byron Dafoe, playing his first game since Feb. 21, came up huge in the first nine minutes of the second period, turning back 12 shots. Dafoe kept his team in the game, and the next three goals belonged to the Bruins.

''He played great when we struggled defensively,'' said Jason Allison. ''He came up huge and made some saves he maybe shouldn't have. Those are the kinds of saves he'll have to make, especially until we get the system perfected, once in a while. If he plays like that, he wins games on his own sometimes.''

The first Boston goal came during a two-man advantage at 12:02. Brian Rolston (one goal, two assists) scored when he took a pass from Allison and one-timed it from the left point. The puck deflected off the stick of Ottawa left wing Magnus Arvedson and over goalie Patrick Lalime to pull the Bruins to 2-1.

Andrei Kovalenko, who was moved up to play with Allison and Rolston in the second period, tied it on the man advantage at 15:46. Defenseman Jarno Kultanen (three assists in his NHL debut), who picked up a ton of ice time when veteran Paul Coffey, making his regular-season debut, exited with a left shoulder injury of unknown seriousness midway through the second, delivered the puck to Rolston at the left point. Rolston dished the puck to Kovalenko in the right circle. Kovalenko, who had six shots, drilled a shot past Lalime.

''We didn't see a lot of it in the preseason from him but that's Andrei,'' said Burns. ''He's got to bring the puck to the net. That's why they call him the Tank, because he'll go and bring it there and you have to either pull him down or trip him. He started doing that, that's why he was bumped up.''

In the third, the Bruins took their first lead on Allison's first goal and second point. With the teams skating four a side, Rolston centered to Allison, who shoveled a shot from the slot into the right side of the net.

But that lead evaporated at 11:26 when Ottawa scored its second power-play goal. With Kyle McLaren off for interference, Marian Hossa beat Dafoe at 11:26 to tie the game, 3-3.

Arvedson put the Senators back out in front, 4-3, when he beat Kultanen to the outside down the right circle and beat Dafoe inside the left post at 14:37.

But Boston pulled even for good a little more than two minutes later. Joe Thornton centered a pass to Samsonov in front. Samsonov fanned on his initial attempt but nailed his second, beating Lalime to the top right corner.

The Bruins very nearly took the lead at 17:11 when Allison dished a backhand pass across the slot for Kovalenko on the right side, but Lalime made the stop.

''We looked nervous,'' said Burns. ''As soon as they got a quick lead on us, after we went into the dressing room, we just rallied everybody and said we had to think positive. We were down, 2-0, and battled back. You'd like to have a win, but it's still not a loss.

''In overtime, we outshot them, 4-0, and had better chances than them. It could've gone either way. I thought our energy was good, I thought we forechecked well, I thought we outhit them. Compared to last year, we had some NHL guys out there hitting and it made a big difference. We had maybe a little bit of a down time for a while but it's special teams hockey now. That's what it's going to be so your power play and your penalty kill really have to be sharp.''

This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 10/6/2000.
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