They give it up in the last 2 seconds

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 2/27/2002

NIONDALE, N.Y. - The first game back was bound to be a little sloppy. With NHL teams coming off a 12-day Olympic break, no one thought there would be works of art the first, or even the second, time out.

But that doesn't mean the Bruins didn't miss an opportunity last night. They were 1.4 seconds away from a victory over the Islanders. They were 1.4 seconds away from taking 2 points from an Eastern opponent and keeping pace with the Flyers for the top spot in the conference.

By allowing the scrappy Islanders to score shorthanded at 19:58 of the third period, the Bruins came away with a disappointing and unnecessary 3-3 deadlock.

Going into the recess, the club had vowed to put away foes when they got them down. But once again, they weren't able to do it as they surrendered leads of 2-0 and 3-2.

''How many times have you seen that?'' said center Joe Thornton, rolling his eyes. ''A second and a half left and they score. But I thought the guys played well. We had our chances to win the game, but for our first game back, I thought we played well.''

They certainly did at the start. Their first goal came from a very unlikely source: enforcer Dennis Bonvie, who hadn't registered a point in his 64 National Hockey League games - though he did have 242 penalty minutes.

His first NHL tally was a nice one. Defenseman Gord Murphy relayed the puck from just outside the Boston blue line to Bonvie, who was chugging up the right side. When Bonvie gained the blue line, he teed up a slapper from the right point that blew through Islanders goaltender Chris Osgood at 2:52 of the first period.

''You don't expect that,'' said Bonvie with a laugh. ''It's a nice feeling.''

Left wing Sergei Samsonov made it 2-0 with his 22d of the season at 3:57.

But the Islanders climbed back to tie in the second half of the period on goals by Michael Peca, fresh from his gold medal win in Salt Lake with Team Canada, and defenseman Adrian Aucoin.

Right wing Glen Murray put the Bruins up again, 3-2, at 5:50 of the third, but they couldn't hang onto the lead.

Murray was tagged for holding the stick at 17:56 of the period, but that was evened up by Mariusz Czerkawski heading to the box for boarding at 19:32. With Osgood at the bench for the extra attacker, it turned into a five-on-five as Murray got out of the box, but he wasn't in time to make a difference. Peca got his stick on an Aucoin rebound to beat goalie Andrew Raycroft and score his sixth shorthanded goal of the year - the league-leading 17th for the Islanders.

Boston had a power play going into overtime but couldn't convert.

Coach Robbie Ftorek opted to use Raycroft, called up from Providence yesterday with Byron Dafoe home for the birth of his second child, instead of John Grahame.

''It was an opportunity for us to see what he's been doing down there,'' said Ftorek of Raycroft, who had 26 saves. ''It was a little tough [for Grahame] and I talked to him about it, but it just happened to present itself.

''He played well. It's too bad he didn't get the win.''

This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 2/27/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.