|
 |
| |||
 | |||
|
| | |
BRUINS 4, DEVILS 3 Samsonov ties it, adds OT winner [ Game summary ]
Maybe it was the winning that made them less weary. Or maybe it was the caliber of competition, since the higher it is, the better Boston plays.
The result was a wildly entertaining 4-3 overtime victory over the New Jersey Devils at the sold-out FleetCenter, a game in which the Bruins came from behind three times.
The hero role went to left wing Sergei Samsonov, who tied the game at 3-3 with 4:22 left in regulation, then tallied again at 1:14 of overtime.
He has 20 goals, surpassing his total from last season.
''They played hard games this week, very hard games,'' said coach Mike Keenan. ''Very competitive games, and, certainly, to be able to keep battling back against a very solid team that had most of their lineup ... to play a rested team after we had traveled and played a very, very emotional and physically hard game [against Buffalo], those are all terrific signs.''
Once again, goalie Byron Dafoe, who was making his 20th consecutive start, was terrific, making 30 saves.
In the first period, the Devils outshot the Bruins by nearly a two-to-one margin, 16-9, and several of the New Jersey bids came on odd-man rushes. Boston was fortunate that the teams were even at 1-1 heading into the first intermission.
The Bruins felt they had one, or should have, at 3:51 of the first when Samsonov rifled a shot from high between the circles. It hit goalie Martin Brodeur in the chest and dropped down, and right wing Bill Guerin tried to backhand it past the netminder at the right post.
But a quick whistle - coming even though Brodeur didn't have control of the puck - nullified the threat.
Midway through the period, the Devils came close to scoring on one of their many two-on-one breaks. This one, at 9:59, featured former Boston University standout Jay Pandolfo racing up the ice with right wing Randy McKay. Pandolfo, on the left side, rattled a shot off the far post.
The Bruins nearly got into trouble when defenseman Jarno Kultanen, at the unlucky time of 13:13, switched from his forehand to his backhand to try to clear the puck behind the Bruins cage and ended up hitting the right post, nearly scoring into his own net.
Just five seconds after that, the Devils took a 1-0 lead. The Bruins lost a faceoff in the right circle of their defensive zone, and defenseman Mike Commodore teed up a slapper from the right point. Dafoe made the initial save, but the rebound went directly to right wing Petr Sykora, who switched from his backhand to his forehand and, while falling down, guided the puck past Dafoe's stick.
The Bruins responded with a shorthanded goal a little more than five minutes later. With defenseman Hal Gill in the penalty box for roughing, the Devils went to work on the power play. However, a missed puck at the right point led to a two-on-none for Boston, with forward Brian Rolston racing up the left side with the puck and center Joe Thornton trailing him.
With only the goalie to beat, Rolston switched from his forehand to his backhand and tried to lift the puck into the net. Brodeur made the save, but Thornton drove to the net and shoveled the puck over him to tie it at 18:36. It was Thornton's 16th goal of the year and first in six games.
''I just wanted to follow up Rollie,'' said Thornton. ''Brodeur is a pretty good goalie, and I just wanted to follow up just in case [Rolston] missed. Nobody was around me. It was pretty much a two-on-oh from our blue line.''
The Devils regained the lead at 15:21 of the second, a little more than half a minute after they had failed to beat Dafoe on a great two-on-none shorthanded chance.
Eight seconds after Boston's power play expired, Pandolfo relayed a long lead pass up for center Sergei Brylin at the red line. Brylin sprinted in on Dafoe, and although the goalie stopped the initial shot, the carom went off the right leg of Brylin and into the net.
Boston tied it at 16:34. Forward Mikko Eloranta, who had both goals in the Bruins' victory over Buffalo, fired a backhander from the slot that Broldeur stopped. But the puck ricocheted off Dixon Ward's skate and into the net, making it 2-2.
The Devils went up, 3-2, on a goal by center Jason Arnott at 5:28 of the third period.
But, not long after defenseman Kyle McLaren put a bone-crunching hit on Brylin at the red line, the Bruins rallied to tie. Samsonov took a pass from left wing P.J. Axelsson behind the net, skated out in front, and beat Brodeur with a backhander inside the right post.
Keenan is of the opinion that Samsonov's late-game production was as a result of his being on a mission from the time he took over the point on the power play until the final score.
''Two things happened,'' said Keenan. ''Arnott outmuscled him for the [third New Jersey] goal, and he was upset about it. Then he wanted to get that goal back and he was determined he was going to. That was a great response.''
This story ran on page 01 of the Boston Globe on 1/28/2001.
|
letdown would have been understandable, maybe even expected. The Bruins were coming off big road victories in Toronto and Buffalo, and in their third game in four nights, they were playing against a rested team.