Murray hat trick paces scoring surge

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 4/14/2002

or a span of 10 days, the Bruins were asked if they were worried because of the way they were playing down the stretch. They had an overtime loss to the Islanders, a loss to the Rangers, another overtime loss at New Jersey, a tie with Tampa Bay, and a loss in Ottawa. Through that five-game skid, the players and coaches said there were things they could do better, but they knew the turnaround would come.

Last night, it came in a major way.

The Bruins rolled over the undermanned Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-1, in the regular-season finale at the FleetCenter. By doing so, they captured first place in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 1990-91 and will open the playoffs with a best-of-seven series against the Montreal Canadiens Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the FleetCenter. Game 2 is Sunday night at 7 in Boston. Both games will be broadcast by NESN and WBZ Radio.

The Bruins finished with 101 points, reaching the century mark for the first time since 1992-93, and they are playoff-bound for the first time in three years. The win meant no more scoreboard watching. They didn't care that Philadelphia won its matinee against the Rangers and weren't concerned about Toronto's victory over Ottawa last night. They controlled their destiny.

''The last week or so we've come under a little bit of heat because we haven't been able to put any teams away and get that `W' we've been looking for,'' said goaltender Byron Dafoe, who earned his 35th victory. ''We left it to the last game and we responded. We came out with all our guns going; they didn't have their best lineup, no question, but it doesn't matter. It's a good finish for us, it's nice to win the East. It's gratifying but basically it ends there. Now our new season starts.''

After two years of futility in which injuries took their toll and kept the Bruins out of the postseason, they are back and believe just making it isn't enough.

''We proved it over 82 games that we can compete and play hard and can be a good team,'' said general manager Mike O'Connell. ''Now we've just got to do it [in the postseason]. It's a nice feeling and these guys deserve it and they dug down. They made up their minds that this is where they want to be and they did it.''

It took a few minutes for the Bruins to get revved up. Pittsburgh actually took the lead when they scored on a power play at 4:33 of the first period on Aleksey Morozov's 20th goal of the season.

Less than two minutes later, the Bruins pulled even and then ran away with it. Martin Lapointe made it a 1-1 game at 6:26 when he potted his 17th of the year. Boston took the lead for good at 8:40 on the first of three goals by Glen Murray. Jozef Stumpel centered a pass to Murray, who was perched on the inside edge of the right circle. Murray wristed it past Jean-Sebastien Aubin to make it 2-1.

Bill Guerin scored his career-high 41st of the season on a wraparound at the left post at 1:40 of the second period.

Center Brian Rolston chipped in his 31st tally of the year at 3:24. Sergei Samsonov dished a pass from the right circle to defenseman Nick Boynton at the right point. Boynton teed up a slapper that went off the pad of Aubin and bounced to Rolston in front. With Aubin off-balance, Rolston fired the puck into the empty net. Defenseman Don Sweeney blew the game open with a power-play goal at 12:17.

Murray received a gift from the Penguins on his second goal, his 40th of the season. Penguin left wing Dan LaCouture, who was in the Pittsburgh zone, tried a drop pass to a teammate but instead of finding its target, the blind dish landed on the stick of Murray and he charged in on Aubin. His forehand wrist shot beat the netminder at 18:07 and the Bruins had a five-goal bulge.

Murray's goal marked the first time since 1982-83 - when Rick Middleton and Barry Pederson reached the milestone - that the Bruins have had two 40-goal scorers.

Murray closed out the scoring with 7.7 seconds remaining, earning his 41st tally of the year and third career hat trick.

Prior to making the deal with the Kings for Murray and Stumpel earlier in the season, O'Connell consulted defenseman Sean O'Donnell, the best man in Murray's wedding as Murray was in O'Donnell's. O'Donnell told the GM he thought Murray would get 40, but he never told Murray.

''I haven't heard that story,'' said Murray. ''I'll have to talk to him about that.''

For the first time in three springs, there's plenty to talk about. The Bruins are healthy and ready to make a run at something more than a conference crown.

''Last season, we had a good hockey team but we had unfortunate problems throughout the year and it cost us the playoffs,'' said Dafoe. ''Sure, there are high expectations, we've got an incredible team in here.''

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 4/14/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.