Offensive outburst dims the Lightning

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 11/28/2001

t various points this season, the Bruins have had their goal-scoring abilities called into question. There were games when they couldn't seem to find the net despite outshooting opponents by amazing margins.

For example, in a game against Minnesota Nov. 8, the Bruins poured 56 shots on the Wild, who had only 16, but lost the game by two goals.

Last Saturday night, the Bruins outshot Toronto, 29-12, but were shut out.

Through it all, the players and coaching staff asked for patience and predicted the goals would come.

Last night, the Bruins reached a season high in goals as they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-3, at the FleetCenter.

It was the fifth consecutive home victory for the Bruins, their longest streak of the year.

''It was good to see us score some goals,'' said goaltender Byron Dafoe. ''It was good to see us get to them early and get to them often.''

When coach Robbie Ftorek rolled out his new line combinations, they seemed to click almost immediately.

Ftorek dropped right wing Martin Lapointe off the Joe Thornton line and replaced him with Glen Murray. The result was a career-high 4 points for Sergei Samsonov (three assists, one goal) and a goal and an assist each for Thornton and Murray.

Murray set up the first Boston goal, scored by Samsonov. Murray relayed a perfect pass from the right circle to Samsonov, who was in front of the net. Samsonov went to his backhand and lifted a shot over goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin at 7:46. It was the first goal Khabibulin had given up in a span of 178 minutes 7 seconds. And it was just the beginning.

Thornton, with help from Samsonov, potted his 10th of the season to boost Boston's lead to a pair of goals at 18:49, only one second after a power play expired.

''We didn't have too much time practicing together on the same line, but it worked out well,'' said Samsonov. ''Glen is a great skater with a good shot and he sees the ice pretty well. We had two practices together as a line and we clicked right away. I thought we had a good game; we really knew where everybody was and we were all on the same page.''

The Lightning got one back early in the second period, a power-play goal by defenseman Ben Clymer at 2:57.

At 15:02, the Bruins made it a 3-1 game on Murray's 10th goal of the year.

Samsonov was behind the net and threw the puck up to defenseman Hal Gill at the left point. Gill skated into the circle and teed up a slapper. The puck glanced off defenseman Pavel Kubina and then Murray on the way into the net past the glove of Khabibulin.

''He makes some room for us as a big forward, so it looked good for the first game out there,'' said Thornton of Murray. ''And [Samsonov] is skating so well right now. He has so much confidence. It's tough to take the puck off a guy like that.''

With 1:17 left in the period, the Bruins made it a three-goal bulge. Right wing Bill Guerin, driving down the boards, dropped a pass back for Jozef Stumpel in the right circle. Stumpel's slap shot beat Khabibulin to make it 4-1.

Lightning coach John Tortorella replaced Khabibulin with Kevin Weekes at the start of the third period.

Former Bruin Dave Andreychuk pulled the Lightning within a pair when he scored a power-play goal at 4:31. But Guerin made it a three-goal advantage again when he tallied his seventh goal of the season at 6:12.

After right wing Martin St. Louis pulled the Lightning within 5-3 at 16:44, Brian Rolston (a team-high six shots) closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal with 1.2 seconds remaining.

''I think maybe we got a little complacent with a 4-1 lead going into the third,'' said Dafoe. ''We haven't had that too often. So I don't think we knew exactly how to handle it, but we did the job tonight. It's a big win for us.''

As happy as he was with the offensive output, Ftorek said he'll continue to tinker with his combinations. ''We put people together to try to get production out of them or to try to get a stable line or checking line or two or three good scoring lines,'' said Ftorek. ''[Murray] is a good player and he's playing with two other good players, and that line is clicking pretty well right now.''

This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 11/28/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.