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BRUINS 4, SABRES 3 Sabres storm the net late in third period but still go under [ Game summary ]
There was, though, a messy asterisk attached to the final 10 minutes. Seemingly in command with a 4-1 lead and breezing their way to the win, the Bruins spent the last half of the final period desperately clinging to that lead, turning 2 easy points into a five- alarm fire drill.
''The end became like the days when you played as a kid, out on the pond, or playing street hockey,'' remarked netminder Byron Dafoe. ''We were really penned in there, and I was diving all over the place. It was a mad scramble, exciting, but ...''
''That,'' added forward Bill Guerin, ''is as scary as it gets.''
But a horror show looks like a sitcom when, in the end, the victory is put in place in the standings. Thanks to some stellar work by Dafoe in net - he outplayed Dominik Hasek, 33 saves vs. 23 - the Bruins escaped with their 14th win. Sergei Samsonov scored twice, once when he didn't technically fire a shot, and P.J. Axelsson contributed a very important goal and assist, lifting the Bruins into the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference.
''A learning process,'' said coach Mike Keenan, his Bruins now 2-1-1 on a five-game road trip that has pulled them within two games of .500 (14-16-5-4). ''The end was a huge 10 minutes for us, for what we had to overcome.''
Keenan was clearly peeved with some of the calls, and noncalls, by referees Marc Joannette and Don Van Massenhoven during the late stages of the game. For one, said Keenan, there was a Stu Barnes dive that didn't get called. For another, he didn't like how, in his opinion, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff manipulated Joannette during a goaltending switch. Looking to get his power-play unit a valuable breather, Ruff pulled Hasek for Martin Biron, and in Keenan's opinion, Joannette allowed Biron too much time to come in off the bench.
One thing about Keenan: He misses nothing in the details.
''He extracted a lot of time,'' said Keenan, ''from an inexperienced official.''
Axelsson's goal with 42 seconds left in the second period had provided a 3-1 lead, and Samsonov raised it to 4-1 less than a minute into the third when he fanned on an Andrei Kovalenko feed from the right wing, only to have the puck carom in off his skate.
But then Keenan's troops began sucking wind, botching up the puck, and committing costly penalties. With 8:18 to go, and Darren Van Impe in the penalty box, Miroslav Satan cut it to 4-2. Then came the real trouble. Axelsson was whistled off for hooking with 2:24 to go. Only 29 seconds later, off went Kyle McLaren for a high stick. Ruff then yanked Hasek for what amounted to a 6-on-3 power play, and with 1:02 left in regulation, ex-Bruin Dave Andreychuk reached in from behind the goal line and stuffed in the third Buffalo goal.
A laugher had turned into a one-goal squeaker.
''Those last eight minutes, we really shut it down,'' said Guerin, who picked up a key assist on Boston's first goal, his takeaway in the neutral zone springing a transition rush that ended with Jason Allison feeding Samsonov at the left post. ''That's not good. And I don't like to criticize the refs, but the calls did go heavily in their favor at the end. Still, we have to be better disciplined.''
The Sabres were still skating 6-on-4, McLaren in the penalty box, when the final seconds ticked off. But Dafoe made the necessary stops, with help from a four-man kill unit comprising Axelsson, Joe Thornton, Hal Gill, and Peter Popovic.
''That's a big win for us,'' said Dafoe. ''That team has dominated us in Buffalo [the Sabres were 8-1-1 here in the last 10 matchups]. And we've definitely been building momentum the last 2-3 weeks. The only down note is that we haven't been able to win two or three games in a row. With some momentum off this, hopefully we will win the next one.''
They are by no means a force, but the Bruins of 2001 at least have reason for optimism. They are watchable, even entertaining (sometimes for the wrong reasons, like those last 10 minutes).
''We haven't been playing with a lead much lately,'' said Samsonov, his first strike having allowed a rare bit of relaxation in the Boston attack. ''When you give up that first one, you're always chasing the other team.''
For one afternoon, someone chased them for a change. And for one afternoon, they didn't get caught.
This story ran on page F01 of the Boston Globe on 1/2/2000.
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UFFALO - The good outweighed the bad, and that itself classified as a rarity for the Bruins this season. After going without a victory here at the edge of Lake Erie in nearly three years, they pocketed a 4-3 win over the Sabres yesterday, nudged their way (at least temporarily) into playoff position, and continued to display significant signs of salvaging something from the 2000-01 season.