[ Game summary ]

By Frank Dell'Apa, Globe Staff, 1/11/2002

ruins fans booed Jason Allison and the Bruins attempted to add injury to insult, taking a 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings last night.

Allison made an anticlimactic return to the FleetCenter, failing to make an impact as the Kings displayed the lethargy of the penultimate game of a five-game road trip over an eight-day span.

The Bruins set the tone early, aggressively pressuring opposing defensemen, and capitalized on Kings errors to virtually clinch the victory after Glen Murray scored at 13:26 of the second period to make it 4-0.

But P.J. Stock kept the pressure on, clashing with Allison late in the period and receiving a roughing penalty. The fans also got into the act, though it took until the third period before they began anti-Allison chants in response to his departure after a difficult contract dispute. By then, the contest had been long decided, and Allison failed to show the skillful play that had marked his Bruins career, and which had inspired the Kings to four successive victories.

''We caught a tired team, we scored a couple of goals early, and from that point on they knew they were in for a long night,'' said Joe Thornton.

''Playing catchup here in Boston is tough.''

The Bruins' ex-Kings - Murray and Jozef Stumpel - were key figures. Martin Lapointe tipped a Sean O'Donnell shot past Felix Potvin for the opening goal at 4:45.

Then, Murray and Stumpel, who were acquired from the Kings in an Oct. 24 trade for Allison and Mikko Eloranta, went to work. Stumpel picked off a Philippe Boucher clearance to set up Bill Guerin for the second goal at 9:39.

Thornton held possession behind the net, found Murray in front, and Sergei Samsonov converted the rebound for a 3-0 lead at 4:20 of the second period. After Murray made the Bruins the first team to have three 20-goal scorers, it was a matter of both teams conserving energy for another day, though they apparently forgot to inform Stock (another spirited fight) and Thornton, who received three penalties, one for fighting in the second period, and converted his 19th goal of the season, finishing a two-on-one break at 3:21 of the final period.

Allison, meanwhile, slipped a couple of Stock punches and quietly retired for the night.

''It's tough to come back to a place you played and have people booing,'' Thornton said. ''But lots of players get that when they go back. Personally, I like [Allison] a lot and he's a good friend of mine. It's tough because we had a great group of guys here, but I'm sure it will work out for him.

''Playing with [Allison] and seeing what he does helped me a lot. He's so slippery out there. But we got two good guys in the trade, and they are good character guys, also. Stump has really taken the pressure off me and it was good to see [Murray] score his 20th goal against his old team.''

Allison's best assault on goal did not occur until late in the game when he was stymied by a sprawling John Grahame. Byron Dafoe started but departed with flu symptoms after the first period.

The Kings' failure to threaten during power-play situations in the second period was symbolic of their road-weariness.

Thornton was penalized for holding (5:51), elbowing (8:54), and fighting (12:17). Adam Deadmarsh misfired in the right faceoff circle as the first power play concluded, and Allison failed to shoot with the Bruins' defensemen retreating during the second penalty. After Thornton scuffled with Kelly Buchberger, Zigmund Palffy failed to catch up with a pass from Allison and the Bruins retaliated quickly. Murray scored off Potvin's glove, giving the Bruins a 4-0 lead.

''They are a really good team but they were a really tired team,'' Bruins coach Robbie Ftorek said. ''They didn't have that extra oomph. Some of their passes that are usually on were not on and we did a good job of shutting them down.''

This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 1/11/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.