[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 1/20/2002

T. LOUIS - It was the ultimate damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't play. Blues left wing Keith Tkachuk, who is nearly impossible to stop when he gets a head of steam, was charging through the left circle with the puck in overtime.

Bruins defenseman Hal Gill, who sat out half of the third period because of the flu, had just begun his shift and had no way of catching the big forward. So he hooked his stick around Tkachuk's middle and gave him a tug. It wasn't much but it was enough for the referee to call Gill for hooking and give the Blues a power play.

During the four-on-three, Tkachuk, who played well all game, scored on a rebound of a Chris Pronger shot from the blue line at 3:29 of the extra session to win it 2-1. The victory was St. Louis's eighth in a row, tying a franchise record.

"I just got on so I didn't really have my feet moving," said Gill. "I didn't really hook him, I was just trying to get something on him. I don't know about the call. I can't let him go and I couldn't really get going with him."

Gill said he's just happy the Bruins have another shot at the Blues tomorrow afternoon at the FleetCenter. Its the first home-and-home series for the teams since 1979.

"We got a point out of it," said Gill. "We would've liked to have gotten two. Maybe we'll play with a little more conviction to try to get the win next time. It's nice to have another chance at it."

The Bruins played a decent road game but really didn't put all that much pressure on Blues goalie Brent Johnson. He made 28 saves and most were far easier than the stops Byron Dafoe (27 saves) was forced to make.

"Byron played really well," said coach Robbie Ftorek. "I thought the other kid made some saves but he wasn't really tested, I don't think."

The power-play statistics were the most telling. The Bruins were 0 for 4 and the Blues 1 of 4.

"I thought we played pretty well," said Ftorek. "It's unfortunate, we had a lot of penalties to kill and we didn't get one on our power play, which would've been a nice time to get one."

Martin Lapointe, who had the Bruins' goal, said the team wasn't able to set up the way it likes to during the man advantage.

"We had a tough time going into the zone," said Lapointe. "We tried different breakouts and tonight it didn't click. When you get power plays like that, you have to make sure you capitalize and we didn't do that."

After a scoreless first period, the teams swapped goals in the second with Tkachuk potting his first of the game at 7:10.

Scott Mellanby, charging down the left side, bounced the puck off the boards and back to Pavol Demitra. Demitra, along the far left boards, fired a pass across the slot to Tkachuk, who was coming in from the right circle. Defenseman Don Sweeney nearly broke up the pass but it found its mark and Tkachuk lifted a high backhander over Dafoe to make it 1-0.

The Bruins tied it at 18:36 when Lapointe, who was playing in his 600th NHL game, scored his 11th goal of the season as a result of being in the right place at the right time.

Jozef Stumpel, in the right corner, threw the puck at the net. It first hit the stick of Johnson and then caromed off both the skate and stick of Blues defenseman Mike Van Ryn. Van Ryn spun around in front of the goal trying to capture the puck but it squirted over to Lapointe and he banged it through Johnson to make it 1-1.

That was all they would be able to get.

"We worked so hard to tie it up," said Lapointe. "In OT, anything can happen plus they gave us a penalty and it's tough four on three. It was a bad bounce but we'll take the point. We'll go back home and get a chance to get back at it [tomorrow] against the same team. I'm sure guys will bounce back."

This story ran on page C13 of the Boston Globe on 1/20/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.