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AVALANCHE 8, BRUINS 2
Snowed in
[ Game summary ]
By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 2/22/2001
DENVER - For a period, last night's game lived up to its billing. At the start, there was plenty of electricity as Ray Bourque took the ice against the Bruins for the first time since last March's trade sent him to the Avalanche.
As sentimental as it was for Bourque, the game was regarded by the Bruins as a huge test since they are playing the iron of the league during this three-game trip and are struggling to maintain their hold on a playoff spot.
At game's end, Bourque had two assists and the Bruins had a disaster on their hands as they surrendered seven unanswered goals in a Colorado 8-2 win at the Pepsi Center.
Coach Mike Keenan said the bottom line is that the Bruins were let down by goaltenders Peter Skudra and John Grahame.
"I thought we played fairly well to start with," said Keenan. "I thought we were playing pretty well in the second period. We had a huge territorial advantage until [Alex] Tanguay came down and scored the third goal. That's when the floodgates opened. We just didn't have the goaltending. They both really struggled. There's no sense hiding behind anything. You certainly aren't going to beat Colorado without goaltending."
Just 2:49 into the contest, Shawn Bates put Boston on the scoreboard first. Bates, who had missed the previous 16 games because of a groin injury, tallied his first goal in 18 games -- since a Nov. 24 game against Carolina. That was his only other score.
Bates was set up by a terrific backhand centering pass from Mikko Eloranta. Eloranta threaded the puck through, and Bates was there on the doorstep to rap it past goalie Patrick Roy.
That lead lasted just 10 seconds, however. Chris Drury took a shot that Skudra stopped. But the rebound bounced out to Peter Forsberg in the right circle, and he snapped it in to make it 1-1 at 2:59.
Joe Thornton put the Bruins back in front at 7:23 with some help from linemate Andrei Kovalenko. Kovalenko's dirty work along the boards sprung Thornton for a breakaway, and his forehand shot beat Roy through the five hole to make it 2-1. It was Thornton's 20th goal of the season.
Midway through the period, the Bruins were penalized for too many men on the ice, and it cost them. With Colorado's league-best power play operating at full tilt, there was nothing Skudra could do.
Drury ripped a shot from the point that deflected off forward Adam Deadmarsh and past the Bruins goalie at 11:37 to pull the Avalanche even once again.
The Bruins fell apart completely in the middle period, and fell behind by four goals. Boston couldn't generate any offense against the swift-skating home team, which did a thorough job of containing the line of Jason Allison, Sergei Samsonov, and Bill Guerin.
Through the 10-minute mark of the period, the Bruins had managed one paltry shot. But the score still was even until the 10:13 mark, when the Avalanche ripped off the first of four straight scores.
Tanguay started the barrage with a goal off the rush. Milan Hejduk started the play with a pass to Joe Sakic, who dished it to Tanguay in the left circle, and he beat Skudra with his 24th of the year.
Hejduk made it 4-2 with a blast through a screen from the top of the left circle at 12:12, with Bourque getting his first assist of the game. With the ship listing badly, Keenan gave Skudra the hook in favor of Grahame.
Grahame didn't fare any better against the Colorado shooting gallery. At the 18:30 mark, Sakic took a pass from Forsberg and beat Grahame from the left circle. Bourque got his second assist.
Then Forsberg made it a rout with one-10th of a second left in the period when he beat Grahame through a screen from the right circle.
Keenan opted to put Skudra back into the game to start the third.
It didn't make a difference, as the Avalanche buried their seventh goal at 4:39 on a shot from the slot by defenseman Martin Skoula.
Bourque, who nearly had a goal at 7:01 when he rattled a shot off the post, admitted he had a difficult afternoon yesterday, thinking about playing his former team.
"Once I got to the rink and once it started, it was fine," he said. "It was a little bit different but not much.
"Their goaltending wasn't very sharp. So if it was a little better back there, it wouldn't have been an 8-2 game."
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