Bruins receive friendly bounces in OT victory

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 12/8/2002

fter an impressive start to the season, the Bruins haven't played very well the last little while, and yet they continue to find ways to win.

A different game, a different hero. Coach Robbie Ftorek and his staff adjust on the fly - as they did yesterday by shortening the bench and giving John Grahame a back-to-back start. Add a couple of lucky breaks and it added up to a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime at the FleetCenter.

For the Bruins, it marked the first overtime wins in consecutive games since March 1992 against Buffalo and Quebec.

The Lightning continued their stretch of futility in Boston; they are one of two NHL teams to have never won in the FleetCenter, dropping to 0-14-3. San Jose (0-3-2) is the other.

Defenseman Nick Boynton was the man of the hour, taking a pass from Brian Rolston and firing it past goalie Nikolai Khabibulin at 3:11 of the extra period.

''I just closed my eyes and shot the puck, that's all I did,'' said Boynton, whose shot from the slot netted his first goal in 20 games and second of the year. ''I got lucky.

''There were two guys on him in the left corner and I was yelling. So I guess [Rolston] heard me or he just knew I was there. It's been so long since I scored, I don't know what I was saying, I was just praying it was going in, so I got lucky.''

The day didn't start off so well for the Bruins. Center Brad Richards scored at 7:25 of the first period at even strength and defenseman Dan Boyle added a power-play goal at 15:10 to put the Lightning on top, 2-0.

The Bruins cut the lead in half at 3:40 of the second on Glen Murray's 17th goal of the season, which tied him for tops in the league. Then the fun really began.

At 11:42, it appeared the Lightning scored a third goal. Left wing Fredrik Modin dished a backhander to Andre Roy in front of the net. The puck glanced off the skate of Roy and went in. But video replay overturned the score, ruling that the puck had been kicked in by Roy.

''Any time a goal is disallowed, it's a big boost,'' said Grahame. ''It's kind of a letdown when they score and then you realize it's not because it's kicked in. It's a big adrenaline boost like, `Hey, let's go after this and get the tie and then get the win.'''

It was in no small part because of Grahame that they did. He was outstanding in the third period as was the Bruins' defense, which kept them in the game. Boynton broke up a Modin breakaway at 2:47 and Bryan Berard chased down Ruslan Fedotenko and took away his scoring chance with about 13 minutes remaining in regulation.

Roy's skate came back into play at 12:04, when the Bruins pulled even on Berard's sixth goal of the year. The Lightning tried to clear the puck out of the zone but Berard got to it first and flung it at the net. It caromed off the right skate of Roy and past Khabibulin.

Grahame snuffed out what looked like almost certain goals on a point-blank chance by Boyle and on a Modin shot that finished off an odd-man rush. The goalie played down the significance of his contribution.

''There's nothing really to say,'' said Grahame, who had 20 saves. ''You just try to help the team and wait until we could get that third goal and try to hold everybody in there. It's kind of me scratching their back and them scratching mine. You can see the teamwork out there.''

Ftorek said he went with his big guns for most of the game because he thought it would give them the best chance to win, although it was a risk given that the team is playing again this afternoon against the Rangers in New York.

''We just weren't generating a lot early in the game,'' said Ftorek, who played nine players more than 20 minutes and five under 10. ''We really felt we needed to shorten it up and we had to move some people around. We don't normally do that but we felt today was necessary and fortunately it worked out. It might cost us [today] but we got our 2 [points].''

Boynton said this edition of the Bruins is far more resilient than last year's.

''When you're finding ways to win like that, it's great for confidence,'' said Boynton. ''Last year at this time, we were kind of blowing games like this. To be able to come back and win it like that, it's really a big confidence booster.''

This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 12/8/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.