[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 12/2/2001

ANATA, Ontario - They were less than six minutes away from a clean getaway.

If they could have held on, they would have earned their first back-to-back wins on the road this year. They would have gained ground on a division opponent. They would have put themselves in better position in the conference.

But a couple of breakdowns intervened in the Bruins' grand plan last night and the result was a 2-1 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators at the Corel Centre.

The Bruins had a 1-0 lead with under six minutes to play, but they couldn't hang on to it. The Senators' Radek Bonk ended a goal-scoring drought when he tied it at 14:40 of the third period on just his second goal in 22 games. Mammoth Zdeno Chara ended it just 54 seconds into the extra session when the 6-foot-9-inch defenseman took a pass from Bonk and beat goalie Byron Dafoe from the slot.

''We played well,'' said coach Robbie Ftorek. ''We had a breakdown and they capitalized on it. They're a very patient team and they look for that.''

The breakdown in question allowed Bonk to get wide open in front of the net. Forward Shawn McEachern had the puck and was skating behind the cage and up the boards. There was a miscommunication between Bill Guerin and Kyle McLaren as to who was going to do what as they both went after McEachern. McLaren said Guerin called him off, and when he tried to get back, he was too far away from Bonk to do anything.

''It was a miscommunication,'' said McLaren. ''If I want to play it safe, I've got to stay in front of the net. I kind of got caught in no-man's land with Billy going and [Bonk] in the slot. I either have to go at [McEachern] hard without hesitation or stay in front of the net. You can't do both. Billy called me off and by that time, I was in no-man's land. For me to backpedal and get back in front of the net, it's tough.''

Guerin said it was a case of not knowing what the other was doing.

''It was a minor breakdown,'' said Guerin. ''Sometimes that's all it takes. I thought I was going. He had a lot of time, McEachern. Kyle was in between going and we weren't on the same page. [Bonk] ends up pretty much by himself.''

When the horn sounded at the end of regulation, it marked the 11th time in 26 games the Bruins had gone into the extra session, in which they are 5-3-3. The Bruins had looked to be in the driver's seat long before that.

Guerin, who had a game-high 10 shots on net, scored the Bruins' only goal 1:22 into the third period. He got the puck from Jozef Stumpel, charged down the right side, and blew by defenseman Chris Phillips to the inside after Phillips tried to fish for the puck.

Goalie Patrick Lalime went down early and Guerin beat him with a top-shelf forehander. That should have been enough.

''We played so well for so long and we finally catch a break and get a goal and we let it slip away; that's very frustrating,'' said Guerin. ''It happens during the course of the year and you have to bounce back from it.''

Dafoe had another strong game, facing 24 shots.

''I thought we played a great 55 minutes,'' said Dafoe. ''Then we basically gave them two goals and it cost us the hockey game. It's disappointing in the fact that we played so well for so long, but we need to be stronger in the last five minutes. It's disappointing because we should've walked away with the victory. We had the game in the bag with five minutes to go.''

The defeat wasn't the only bad news for the Bruins. The club lost defenseman Don Sweeney because of an injured rib cage muscle suffered on his second shift. Sweeney, who played just 8:17 last night, missed the final two periods of Thursday's game against Philadelphia because of a game misconduct for kneeing. Sweeney said he doesn't yet know if it's torn or strained, but he'll know more today.

''I went to make a play and I popped or strained a muscle in my rib cage,'' said Sweeney, who believes it's either a latissimus dorsi or oblique muscle injury. ''It's pretty bad. You try to play through those things.''

But he was unable to because any twisting motion was too painful.

The loss was pretty painful, too.

''It's tough to lose the other point, very tough, especially against a team in our own division,'' said McLaren. ''But we played hard. There were a few miscommunications even on their overtime goal. Things are going to happen like that. We have to be a little disappointed we didn't get the extra point, but I think it's important to know we actually played a strong game against a very good team.''

Just not strong enough.

This story ran on page D8 of the Boston Globe on 12/2/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.