[ Game summary ]

By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff, 3/31/2002

t's edging close to playoff time here in the Hub of Hockey, and that should make for tight games, lots of emotion, and all the clang and clatter that come with hints of spring creeping into the rink.

So, then, how do we explain yesterday's deadpan matinee at the Fleet?

''Kind of a boring game,'' noted Bruins netminder Byron Dafoe, following Carolina's 2-0 win over the Black 'n' Gold. ''Not a lot of emotion on either side. I don't know why. Maybe it was because it was an afternoon game, but for whatever reason, we walked through parts of it, and [Carolina] did, too.''

Full points for honesty, but none in the standings. The Bruins, whose winning streak was snapped at six, held on to their slim lead atop the Eastern Conference, but had to leave the building wondering, along with a sellout crowd of 17,565, just how far that kind of performance will carry them when the serious season begins in a couple of weeks. Sleepwalk through a couple more 60-minute sessions, and a highly successful regular season can unravel faster than the Enron retiree company picnic.

''We had our chances, not a lot of quality shots, but we had our chances,'' mused right winger Glen Murray. ''But we didn't deserve to win - they did.''

More honest talk. The hard truth was the Hurricanes, who have all but clinched the No. 3 seed in the East, knocked in a power-play goal at 6:49 of the second period (Jeff O'Neill from Ron Francis) and then turned Causeway Street into the standard NHL trap-a-thon. Maybe it didn't add to anyone's viewing pleasure - not even for diehard ex-Whale fans sprinkled around the Vault - but it deposited 2 points neatly into the Hurricanes' Eastern Conference savings account.

Dafoe had no shot at stopping O'Neill's stuff. Slipping alone inside the left post, O'Neill swatted in yet another perfect dish across the crease from Francis (anyone, in any sport, more underrated?). It was Carolina's 10th shot on net. For the rest of the day, the Hurricanes took only five more, and one of those was recorded on Erik Cole's 100-plus-foot empty-net goal with 47 seconds to play.

That's five shots over the final 33 minutes 11 seconds. Zzzzzz. At some point, folks, shouldn't the trap be considered a penalty, along the lines of failure to compete? (Show of hands, please, for a five-minute major.)

The NHL tries to justify sky-high ticket costs by suggesting this is entertainment? Not so when only one hand is clapping out there. Not that anyone can blame the former Forever .500s, of course, because they played within the rules. It's the Lords of the Boards who are at fault here, for ignoring the on-ice constipation that their rulebook allows. Sorry to put it that way, because now someone will hustle Ex-Lax for in-ice advertising.

Meanwhile, the Bruins could muster next to nothing to break the Hurricanes' niggardly ways. One of the ways to beat the trap is to hammer the puck into the offensive end and hope your big guys can outmuscle and outhustle their big guys. In NHL 2002 there are no little guys, of course. But the Bruins showed little hustle or muscle. In fact, they generated only a paltry 10 shots for the first two periods, prior to finding enough third-period energy to wake up and land 11 more on netminder Arturs Irbe.

''I wasn't disappointed by the first period,'' said Bruins coach Robbie Ftorek, his squad landing only three shots on net in the first. ''We had some chances. Then after they got that first goal, they went into that shell.''

Murray and Brian Rolston put up Boston's two best chances of the day. With 4:38 gone in the second, the score still 0-0, Murray rang one off the base of the left post from the slot, a great power-play chance. Blitzing down the left side on a two-on-one break with with 9:30 to go in regulation, Rolston opted to shoot from close range - a good choice - but Irbe smothered the attempt.

''We couldn't seem to get it going, for whatever reason,'' said Bruins blue liner Sean O'Donnell. ''They got that one-goal lead and seemed content with it - kinda put a blanket over us. That's what playoff hockey is going to be like. You have to win those 1-0 and 2-0 games, and that's what they did.''

Thanks, in part, to Boston's lethargy.

''Believe me,'' said Dafoe, ''we'll be jacked up for that game Tuesday in Philly.''

It's that time of year. Isn't it?

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 3/31/2002.
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