Bruins rewrite book on winning formula with offensive breakthrough

[ Game summary ]

By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff, 2/28/2001

ule 1, Hockey 101: It's about goaltending, and it will always be about goaltending.

As true as that is, and always will be, the Bruins last night found a way - and an impressive one - to get beyond the truths we hold to be self-evident and win with someone other than their franchise goalie making franchise saves behind them.

Led by seven different goal scorers - including the first career strikes for Lee Goren and Jarno Kultanen - they tagged a 7-4 loss on the Phoenix Coyotes at the FleetCenter and put an end to a winless streak that had reached five games (0-3-0-2). The victory, in tandem with Carolina's 1-1 tie in Atlanta, also pulled the Bruins into a tie with the Hurricanes for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

''It was a good night to see us come back with some offensive confidence,'' said Bruins coach Mike Keenan, following his club's highest offensive output of the season, before a crowd of 16,262. ''We went to the net well and continued to shoot.''

Earlier in the day, Keenan designated John Grahame as his starting netminder, saying he made the choice because he ''had to find a goaltender who could win a game.'' No. 1 netminder Byron Dafoe (pulled hamstring) remained on the sidelines. Grahame was the choice - be it by coin flip, or toss of darts - over Peter Skudra.

In the end, the winning formula wasn't in the net but in the hands of the goal scorers. Jason Allison, Bill Guerin, Dixon Ward, Joe Thornton, and Cameron Mann (one goal, two assists) joined Goren and Kultanen on the scoreboard. For once, it wasn't up to the likes of Dafoe or Grahame or Skudra or Andrew Raycroft or Kay Whitmore or whatever masked man of choice to pin up 2 points in the win column.

The offense carried the day. How about that? Grahame was all right in net, nothing sensational, but it didn't matter. He twice roamed much too far from his cage, got burned on one of those forays for a goal, but none of that mattered either. And why? Because the Bruins repeatedly played with speed, authority, and confidence in the offensive end, and all of that made up for their bountiful blunders behind the blue line.

True, it's always about goaltending. But it doesn't have to be only about goaltending. A good offensive performance increases the margin for error. Case in point: By the 13:13 mark of the first period, Goren, Ward, and Guerin all had scored, providing a 3-0 lead that the Coyotes simply couldn't overcome.

Rule 2, Hockey 101: When without goaltending, pile up as many goals as you can, preferably early, and just keep on piling.

The Coyotes did mount a slight scare. Former Bruins assistant coach Bob Francis, now the head Desert Dog, called a timeout after Guerin's goal made it 3-0. In a span of 1:27, Keith Carney and ex-Bruin Landon ''Of The Lost'' Wilson cut the margin to 3-2. But with only 1:46 to go in the first, Allison walked out from behind the net and lifted a Mario Lemieuxlike backhander/backbreaker to the top right corner to regain the two-goal margin, 4-2.

Phoenix pulled starting netminder Robert Esche after the first, only to see the spread grow worse with No. 1 goalie Sean Burke tossed in the cage. Kultanen and Thornton scored within two minutes, bumping the lead to 6-2, and the best the Coyotes could do from there was pull within two on goals by Jyrki Lumme and Wilson (15).

Mann supplied an empty-netter with 1:42 to go for the 7-4 final.

''Any time you can win,'' said Grahame, who turned back 22 of 26 shots, ''it feels good.''

Rule 3, Hockey 101: When Rule 2 applies, enjoy it to the max.

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 2/28/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.