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FLYERS 6, BRUINS 4 Flyers buzz by them as winning streak ends [ Game summary ]
So instead of leapfrogging over Carolina into eighth place in the Eastern Conference, the Bruins squandered a lead and lost to the Philadelphia Flyers last night, 6-4, keeping them in ninth.
The Bruins took a 4-3 lead into the third period but gave up three goals as their winning streak was snapped at three games.
The early part of the third turned out to be a harbinger, as the Flyers got prime scoring chances. Mark Recchi (two goals, two assists) had a shorthanded breakaway at 1:39 but John Grahame blocked his bid at the left post with his right pad. Then at 2:18, Keith Primeau rattled a shot high off the right post.
The Flyers kept coming, though, and at 5:57, they tied the game on a shorthanded goal. The Bruins were a positional mess on the play.
Defenseman Eric Desjardins ripped a shot from the slot that went high and wide of the cage. But the puck bounced right back out and Desjardins, who inexplicably was all alone, swatted it out of the air on his backhand and past the glove of Grahame to pull Philadelphia even, 4-4.
Then it was Desjardins who set up the winner with 3:17 left, after Andrei Kovalenko was called for hooking. Desjardins, at the point, looked as if he would shoot. However, he saw Recchi in the right circle and passed instead, giving Recchi a one-timer for the power-play goal. Primeau added an empty-netter at 19:51.
Bruins coach Mike Keenan said the loss boiled down to a mistake that led to the shorthanded goal and a blown call by referee Dan Marouelli that led to the winner.
''Marouelli made a bad call on Kovalenko,'' said Keenan. ''He didn't do anything.
''We weren't ready to play the game to start with. We responded pretty well in the second and third. The game was won on the giveaway on the power play and the bad call by Marouelli. That was pretty much it.''
The Flyers took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission. They went up, 1-0, at 9:11 on the 12th goal of the season by defenseman Dan McGillis. That advantage lasted just over a minute, though. Cameron Mann, skating down the right side, threaded a pass through traffic and Brian Rolston, charging the net, rapped it past Flyers goalie Roman Cechmanek at 10:31.
The Flyers went back on top exactly three minutes later as Recchi potted his 21st of the season, scoring off a feed from McGillis. Boston pulled even again at 17:08, capitalizing on a turnover. After Jody Hull coughed up the puck, Jason Allison took off up the center of the ice. Allison dished a pass to Sergei Samsonov, who relayed it right back to him in the slot. Allison beat Cechmanek with a forehand shot for his 27th goal of the year.
Less than 30 seconds later, though, the Flyers cashed in again. Daymond Langkow took a shot from the right side that Grahame stopped. Langkow gathered up his own rebound and centered a pass from behind the net to Ruslan Fedotenko, who backhanded it past Grahame for a 3-2 lead.
The Bruins picked up two huge goals from center Joe Thornton in the early going of the second period to take a 4-3 lead. With Boston on the power play, Thornton flung a backhander from the slot after cutting in from the left side. It appeared a harmless enough attempt - high but with not a lot of wood on it - but it fooled Cechmanek, who did little more than wave at it as it went by at 1:29. It was Thornton's 27th of the year, extended his point streak to 11 games, and tied the game at 3-3.
After Kent Manderville was whistled off for high sticking Hal Gill in the face, Thornton went to work and potted No. 28 at 2:25. Allison, positioned low in the left circle, relayed a pass across the slot for Thornton, who gave Boston its only lead of the night.
In the 11 games since returning from his second two-game suspension this season, Thornton has a remarkable 19 points (12 goals) after scoring 34 points (14 goals) in his first 45 games.
''We didn't have our best game,'' said Allison. ''We had a few chances in the second to get a two- or three-goal lead but we didn't bury them.
''It's disappointing because we were winning in the third and we lost the game. The bottom line is it doesn't matter who we're playing. We've got 16 games left now and we're fighting for the last playoff spot and that's what matters.''
This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 3/6/2001.
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HILADELPHIA - The victory was there to be had. The Bruins could feel the 2 points, could taste them, could envision them. They just couldn't hang onto them.