Sluggish third period is a Capital offense

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 12/14/2001

ASHINGTON - When Bruins defenseman Sean O'Donnell looks at the NHL standings, he sees Boston isn't far from the top of the Eastern Conference. But it's games like last night's at the MCI Center, when the Bruins surrendered a pair of third-period goals to the Capitals in a 2-1 loss, that separate the best teams from where the Bruins feel they need to be.

It wasn't for lack of chances. Despite playing their second game in as many nights, the Bruins had the edge in shots (36-20), successful faceoffs (51 percent), and scoring opportunities. But they could only get one goal past Olaf Kolzig and that was during a second-period power play.

''The only thing that's kind of dejecting is we had a 1-0 lead going into the third period,'' said O'Donnell, who had an assist last night for his second point in two games. ''We could easily be right up there with Toronto right now if we can just protect the lead a little better. It was the second game in two nights and that's a pretty good team over there but it's happened, I think, too many times. We've still hung on for some wins and we've won some in overtime but we have to learn to close that door in the third period.''

O'Donnell said the Bruins are still maturing and some of the players are going through these tests for the first time.

''This team, maybe in the last couple of years, hasn't had to play in those situations,'' he said. ''I think we have a new bunch of guys here. I think we've surprised ourselves a little bit with how good a team we are. I don't think too many people thought we'd have a chance to win this many games. Even the ones we haven't won, we could've very easily won and I think sometimes we do need to learn, all of us, how to play a little better and how to play with the puck a little better in the third period.''

It was all Bruins in the first two periods. Through 40 minutes, Boston was outshooting the Capitals, 26-14, but had only Jamie Rivers's goal to show for it.

With the Bruins on the man advantage, Rivers took a cross-ice pass from Scott Pellerin and teed up a slapper from atop the left circle. The shot trickled past Kolzig for a 1-0 lead at 13:27.

The struggling Bruin power play has really come on lately. During a recent 10-game span, the Bruins were 0 for 27. But in the last four games, Boston had converted three of its last 10 chances. The Bruins were one for four last night.

The Bruins thought they had a 2-0 lead at 17:39 of the second period, when Martin Lapointe beat Kolzig on a shot from the left circle during a delayed penalty. Officials ruled the Bruins prematurely substituted for goaltender Byron Dafoe and called a faceoff at center ice. Ftorek felt the call was wrong because Dafoe remained in the crease while Brian Rolston came off for Jozef Stumpel.

''If he looks at the film, [Rolston] comes off the ice and we substitute for Brian Rolston because Byron never left the crease, so it's certainly a possible error there,'' said Ftorek. ''We did have guys standing by the bench but nobody went into the play. That's just the way it goes. If you score a big goal like that, it would've been a nice turning point in the game. To have it disallowed is too bad.''

The result was defenseman Joe Reekie went to the penalty box, putting Boston on the power play, but they failed to score. All the missed opportunities came back to haunt the Bruins in the third period. At 5:17, rookie Matt Pettinger pulled the Capitals even, taking advantage of a Boston turnover.

Pellerin tried to get the puck out of the Bruins' zone but it was picked off by Capitals right wing Dmitri Khristich. Khristich relayed the puck to Pettinger, who made it 1-1.

The Capitals tallied the winner at 11:58 of the third. The puck pinballed off several skates and ended up on the stick of Ulf Dahlen, who beat Dafoe.

''I'd have to see that one again,'' said O'Donnell. ''I don't really know what happened. I know it was kind of a three-on-two and it was bouncing. I know at one point [Adam Oates] reached back and tipped it out of the air. I was out there with Jarno [Kultanen] and we kind of got mixed up there. It was just a weird play. It squirted out to the high guy [Joe Sacco] and I was going to go to him and he shot it past me. It went right to their guy [Dahlen] and I was kind of in no-man's land and they got an easy tap-in goal.''

The loss ended Boston's winning streak at two games and ended the Capitals' winless streak at three (0-1-2).

''You've got to give credit where credit is due,'' said Rivers. ''Kolzig played well. If we get that many chances, game in and game out, we're going to win a lot of hockey games, so I don't think we need to hang our heads. We need to be disappointed that we lost the lead and lost the game but we need to be satisfied with some of the positives. We had our chances to win the hockey game. Realistically, maybe we should have.''

This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 12/14/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.