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BRUINS 3, PENGUINS 1 Bruins get it together, take apart Penguins
[ Game summary ]
But something happened in Game No. 24 of the interminable NHL regular season. Out of the ruins of yet another season going bad, they showed up at the Vault last night, played with ample dollops of determination and grit, even some touch, and turned it all into an impressive 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins before - get this - an entertained crowd of 13,797 on Causeway Street.
''That was our best game, by far, since I've been here,'' said winger Dixon Ward, a relative newcomer to what has been a morose season. ''At both ends of the rink, our best game, no question.''
Best of all was Boston's defense. No team in the NHL had given up more than the 84 goals the Bruins had allowed going into last night. But faced with one of the more powerful offensive operations in the game - thy face is Jaromir Jagr - they limited the Penguins to a mere 18 shots. The story within that story was the complete shutdown of the Pittsburgh power play (0 for 6), which included a four-minute man-advantage that spanned the second and third periods.
''Our penalty-killing was tremendous,'' noted Ward, whose altercation with Rene Corbet late in the second period led to the four-minute power play. ''Our power play scored a big goal. Our goaltending was really, really solid. And our defense was great.''
What else is there to say? Well, there were the goals by Andrei Kovalenko (PPG) and Jason Allison, only 3:28 apart in the second period, that erased a 0-1 deficit and provided a 2-1 lead. The finisher was a Bill Guerin empty-netter with 14.8 seconds remaining, with Brian Rolston leading the charge up ice and dishing off to the ex-Oiler.
''That was the most solid 60-minute performance we've had in this building,'' said coach Mike Keenan, who called his battered bunch together for a 90-minute jaw session in lieu of the morning skate, ''right from the start to the finish. The team came out with passion.''
The key difference was a Bruins team that looked as if it wanted to play rather than simply survive. They pushed the puck when they had the chance, resulting in 29 shots on net. When they were without the puck, they went after it, as if they wanted it back (a rare concept), limiting the mighty Jagr to only two shots all night - none in the final period.
Keenan, brought aboard after the club's annual long October trip, inherited a squad afraid to handle the puck, at times looking like the cast of ''Lost in Space'' in the offensive zone. This win, the second in the last four games, was only the fifth victory since Keenan arrived.
But there are hints, even with the likes of Byron Dafoe (knee), Kyle McLaren (knee), and Joe Thornton (charley horse) sidelined, that perhaps the funk is clearing.
''We're sick of not playing winning hockey,'' said Rolston. ''Maybe [the morning meeting] was something we needed to get back in the right direction.
''I thought we played a great game tonight, no question, and that's what we have to do every night. We've learned a lot of lessons this year, and one of them has been to learn to battle right to the end - because [not doing that] has cost us three or four games this year.''
Hal Gill might have resurrected his game. The towering defenseman, who at times this season has looked as if he were skating in two left boots, logged nearly 26 minutes and had the mission of keeping Jagr contained. Mission accomplished.
Keenan showed some confidence in Sergei Samsonov and point men Paul Coffey and Darren Van Impe, leaving all three on the ice for a full two minutes during a second-period power play.
''We are all trying to head in the same direction,'' said Ward. ''Things don't change overnight. But if we can make small steps with 20 guys heading in the same direction, that's progress. We're excited about it.''
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston Globe on 11/29/2000.
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mportant players remained out of the equation. Their overall confidence ebbed between nonexistent and fragile. As works in progress go, the Bruins could be better categorized as a work in distress.