Samsonov's return provides a payoff

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 12/1/2002

ITTSBURGH - As they were getting ready to board the bus to leave the Igloo last night, Hal Gill and Rob Zamuner were joking around in the dressing room.

''Ho-hum, another win,'' kidded Zamuner.

''Yup, just another day at the office,'' added Gill.

The Bruins meant no disrespect to the Penguins, whom they had just beaten, 3-2. It's just that winning has become something this club expects.

Boston is 16-3-3-1 - the team's best start since the 1976-77 season - and has run off five straight victories. The goaltending tandem of John Grahame (between the pipes last night and 5-0-1 in his last six games) and Steve Shields has been solid. The forwards have been scoring a ton and the defense has done its job better than anyone expected.

Anyone, that is, outside the Bruins' locker room. When asked if he was surprised at their remarkable start, captain Joe Thornton smiled and shook his head.

''We've got some good players in here, I don't think a lot of people realize that yet,'' he said. ''You look at our team, we've got a lot of depth. We can throw any line at them and shut down any top team. It's no surprise to all the guys in here.''

Last night's challenge was a bigger one than some recent contests. The Penguins, too, had won their four previous games, and sit atop the Atlantic Division.

For a good portion of the 1990s, the Igloo was a hostile place for the Bruins. It was nearly automatic that a visit to Pittsburgh meant 2 points in the bank - for the Penguins. That's changed. A new century, a new team, a new sheriff in town. They're unbeaten in six games here (4-0-2-0), their last defeat Dec. 14, 1999.

The Bruins, despite being outplayed early, got on the board first on a delayed penalty call. P.J. Axelsson fired a shot on goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin. Aubin made the stop but Thornton beat him with the rebound at 14:59.

An ill-advised hook set up the Penguins' tying goal and first of two on the power play. Sean Brown got called for wrapping his stick around Mario Lemieux's middle at 4:43 of the second period, giving the team's potent power play (No. 1 in the NHL) its first crack of the night.

It didn't miss. Alexei Kovalev dished a backhand pass from the left point over to the right. Axelsson got a stick on it and knocked it down but the puck bounced over to its target - defenseman Brad Ference - at the right point. With Aleksey Morozov screening Grahame, Ference beat the netminder at 5:37.

The Bruins rallied to take the lead again later in the period on Thornton's second goal. Sergei Samsonov, playing his first game since Oct. 17 when he suffered a right wrist injury, made a dazzling play and looked like his old self.

Samsonov crossed the blue line at the left point and then cut to the middle. The Penguins gave him room so he kept on going, skating into the right circle. With Thornton cutting down the left circle, Samsonov dished the puck across to him and Thornton beat Aubin at 13:38 to make it 2-1.

Things got a little hairy early in the third. Michal Grosek mixed it up with Ference and was assessed a five-minute boarding major and five minutes for fighting. Ference was tagged with two for instigating, five for fighting, and a 10-minute misconduct. With the teams skating four a side, Samsonov potted what turned out to be the winner.

Jonathan Girard, just inside the blue line, passed the puck to Bryan Berard below the right circle. Berard shot it in front and the puck glanced off the skate of Samsonov and past Aubin at 2:02. The Penguins thought it shouldn't have counted but video replay showed there was no kicking motion.

The Penguins added their second goal on the power play on the Grosek major. Kovalev, operating from the right point, wristed the puck at the net and it glanced off Jan Hrdina's stick past Grahame at 4:52.

With the goalie pulled, the Penguins tried desperately to tie it but the Bruins shut the door.

''It has been fun, that's for sure,'' said Thornton. ''We wake up every day and it seems to be sunny. We just have a lot of confidence and we've just got to keep rolling with it.''

This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 12/1/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.