Bruins beaten to punch by Senators

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 1/25/2002

TTAWA - Thirty-five to 17.

No, that wasn't the score of last night's Bruins game against the Senators. But the numbers were as telling as the result.

The 35 represents the number of penalty minutes Boston took compared with only 17 for Ottawa. In the third period, the only two minor penalties against the Bruins resulted in two power-play goals for Ottawa. In the end, that was the difference in the 4-3 loss at the Corel Centre.

The Bruins have lost two games in as many nights and have given up five goals on the man advantage in that span. The slumping Bruins have just one victory in their last seven games (1-3-0-3) and their special teams have been a big reason.

''There were too many penalties and we gave them two power plays at the end of the game and that's tough to come back from something like that,'' said coach Robbie Ftorek.

''You can't give up those penalties in the third period and they took advantage of them.''

Ftorek said his team is a bit out of synch and he plans to address it today.

''We've got to go to practice and get back on our game,'' he said. ''We don't usually give up 35 shots [as they did last night]. We have to get tighter in the defensive zone and through the neutral zone. When we do that, things will start to come again.''

Former Bruin Shawn McEachern scored the winner at 9:05 of the third when he called for the puck from teammate Marian Hossa and slid a backhander under the glove of goaltender John Grahame, avenging the Senators' fight-filled 5-2 loss in Boston Jan. 17.

It was a strange game. The Bruins were awful in the first period, terrific in the second, and awful again in the third, largely because they took penalties at the worst times. In all, the Senators had seven power plays and scored on two of them.

A pair of even-strength goals put the Senators up, 2-0, heading into the first intermission. Todd White scored at 4:46 and defenseman Chris Phillips tallied the second at 15:47.

The middle period was very different as the Bruins turned the tables and rallied for three goals to take the lead.

Sergei Samsonov put on a clinic by scoring the first two goals. The Bruins took advantage of a poor line change by Ottawa to begin their climb back. Glen Murray, in the right circle, relayed the puck to Jozef Stumpel in the middle. Stumpel sent it across to Samsonov in the left circle and he fired it over goaltender Patrick Lalime at 1:35.

At the four-minute mark, Samsonov potted his 17th when he took a centering pass from Murray and beat Lalime from the left circle to tie it.

The second half of the period was a rough one for the Bruins, who got into penalty trouble. At 13:42, with the Bruins already down a man, Andrei Nazarov took an ill-advised penalty when he went after defenseman Zdeno Chara. The pair had been trading whacks for several shifts but Nazarov took it too far and wound up with a two-minute instigating penalty, five minutes for fighting, and a 10-minute misconduct. Chara was assessed just five and the Senators had a two-man advantage for 28 seconds. They didn't score but it put extra pressure on the penalty killers, which they didn't need.

In the third, the Senators pulled even at 6:05 during another power play when Grahame had trouble with the puck. The goalie had the puck in his glove but hesitated. After a couple of seconds, he threw it several feet to his left where White, near the right boards, pounced on it. Before Grahame could get back in his net, White passed it to Daniel Alfredsson, who put it into an empty cage.

That sucked a lot of the life out of the Bruins and it only got worse. They were called for a penalty when rookie defenseman Nick Boynton was called for a retaliatory hit on Radek Bonk.

''I didn't think I took a huge swing at him or anything,'' said Boynton. ''But maybe I did. I thought I just kind of pushed him. It's unfortunate and stupid. A team like that is going to kill you if you give them too many chances.''

And McEachern's goal - his second in 25 games - did just that as the Bruins' penalty killers stumbled again.

This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 1/25/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.