[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 10/14/2001

AN JOSE, Calif. - The Bruins went into the third period thinking they were sitting pretty. They had a 2-0 lead, the San Jose Sharks were having trouble getting anything going in the offensive end, and it appeared Boston was on track for a fairly easy win.

What a difference a period makes. The Sharks scored three goals in the third period, with the winner coming with 15.3 seconds left when Marco Sturm lifted a backhander over goalie Byron Dafoe to complete a furious comeback for the 3-2 win last night.

"We didn't keep going forward with the puck," said coach Robbie Ftorek. "We've got to work on improving in that area. We did it in Minnesota and we did it here. When you play as well as we did for two periods, it's not good to turn around and not continue to play the same way. We have to work on that and turn that around. We didn't spend any time in their zone, and you can't spend time in your own zone all the time and expect to come away with things."

The Sharks started the assault with 5:20 left. Bruins forward Scott Pellerin tried to clear the puck out of the zone, but defenseman Brad Stuart kept it in at the right side of the blue line. He fired the puck through traffic, and it deflected past Dafoe to pull San Jose to within 2-1.

The Sharks kept tremendous pressure on Boston from that point on. After San Jose got yet another power play, Vincent Damphousee centered a pass to Owen Nolan, who tied it with 1:45 remaining.

It looked like the game was headed to an unlikely overtime, until something more unlikely happened: Sturm all but ended it with a backhander from deep in the right circle, leaving the Bruins stunned.

Through two periods, the Bruins were completely in charge, playing ferociously in their end and killing off a half-dozen penalties, including a five-on-three San Jose man advantage that lasted the full two minutes.

The Bruins first got on the scoreboard after killing a San Jose power play, with defenseman Hal Gill getting his first of two assists.

Gill, positioned along the left-wing boards, flung the puck at the net. Mikka Kiprusoff stopped it but couldn't corral it, and left wing Sergei Samsonov tried to pry the puck free. Samsonov drew two Shark defenders to him and managed to whack the puck away from the goalie. It squirted over to right wing Martin Lapointe, who was wide open, and he buried it at 11:13 for the 1-0 lead. It was Lapointe's third goal of the season.

The Bruins got into a little bit of penalty trouble in the middle period. A little over a half minute after killing off a Don Sweeney interference infraction, Boston got a big test when a little overzealous aggression led to a two-man disadvantage. Andrei Nazarov got called for roughing and P.J. Stock was called for elbowing. Defenseman Sean O'Donnell, Gill, and Brian Rolston made up the club's first penalty-killing unit and managed to clear the puck time and time again, not allowing the Sharks to set up. When all was said and done, San Jose managed just one shot during the power play.

At 16:38, the Bruins had to kill off another power play when defenseman Richard Jackman, who was making his Boston debut, was called for holding.

A little less than a minute into the penalty, the Sharks were caught deep and they wound up paying for it. An attempt at a centering pass glanced off Bruins left wing P.J. Axelsson and then was knocked away by goalie Byron Dafoe.

Damphousse, who was in front of the net, attempted a backhand shot, but that was blocked by Gill. The puck sailed away, and that sprung Rolston for a shorthanded two-on-one, with O'Donnell chugging up the left side. Rolston skated into the right circle and beat Kiprusoff with a high shot over the goalie's shoulder for the 2-0 lead. It was his third goal of the year.

This story ran on page C4 of the Boston Globe on 10/14/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.