Late goal propels Bruins

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 3/24/2002

UNRISE, Fla. - There's no rhyme or reason to it, no explanation you can identify. Sometimes, a player just seems to have an opposing team's number.

Luckily for the Bruins, Mike Knuble was just such a player last night. Knuble scored with 6:19 remaining in the third period, lifting Boston to a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers. It was Knuble's eighth goal of the season and fourth against the Panthers in four contests - all Boston wins.

Defenseman Sean Brown, positioned at the right point during a delayed penalty call on Florida, dished a pass to Knuble deep in the left circle. Knuble one-timed the puck past netminder Trevor Kidd to the stick side. It held up as the winning goal, giving the Bruins their fourth straight win and seventh in eight games.

''I've had great fortune against [the Panthers] this year,'' said Knuble. ''I guess in this league, you want to score goals whenever you can. It doesn't matter who you're playing. They're all NHL teams and all NHL goals.''

John Grahame, who played well again in net for Boston with 25 saves, earned his eighth win of the year, a career high.

''It's not that big of a deal,'' said Grahame. ''It's not like I won 40 games or anything. It's nice to just keep winning more and more.''

Despite the outcome, it wasn't a very impressive performance, and the Bruins said so. For long stretches, the Panthers outplayed them. Florida had shipped out star Pavel Bure along with several other veterans before Tuesday's trade deadline, leaving Florida with a roster primarily of prospects and call-ups.

In the first period, the Bruins could barely get out of their own zone, much less generate scoring opportunities. The Panthers went ahead, 1-0, at 7:29. Left wing Niklas Hagman (a game-high six shots) beat Grahame from the high slot for his ninth goal.

Grahame stood tall in the first half of the middle period as Florida outshot Boston, 10-3, in the first 9:45. The Bruins' offense finally kicked in at 13:03 when Sergei Samsonov potted his 27th. Jozef Stumpel gained the blue line, then dished it to Samsonov on his left. Samsonov's shot from the slot appeared to hit a defender as it changed direction and trickled through Kidd.

That set the stage for Knuble's heroics. The scoring play was one he said he works on 100 times in practice, ''and I miss 99 of them.'' He sure didn't miss last night.

''Sean made a good play to protect the puck at the blue line,'' said Knuble. ''A lot of times, if you see a little bit of open ice, you want to take it to the net and pound it, but he picked his head up and looked around and saw me standing off to the side. It's one of those plays where you don't think, you just shoot it. It was a pretty good goal. I'm pretty proud of it.''

Right wing Glen Murray, sealed it with an empty-net goal with 1.6 seconds remaining and the Bruins moved into sole possession of the top spot in the Eastern Conference (2 points ahead of Philadelphia) and reached the 90-point mark for the first time since 1998-99.

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 3/24/2002.
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