Holdover Shields can't prevent loss

[ Game summary ]

By Marvin Pave, Globe Staff, 1/14/2003

teve Shields, the Bruins' No. 1 goalie of at least the near future, and Sebastien Caron, the Penguins' No. 1 goalie of the moment, put on a pretty good performance last night at the FleetCenter.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, the Pittsburgh rookie stole the show with a 31-save performance to backstop the visitors to a 2-1 victory on Jan Hrdina's tie-breaking goal at 14:02 of the final period. It was the first start of the season for Caron, who was named the game's No. 1 star and deserved it.

Hrdina, who was robbed by Shields (18 saves) at the beginning of the third period when Shields stuck his hip in front of the power-play shot, got his revenge after Hal Gill's clearing attempt was kept in the zone. Alexei Kovalev cycled behind the net, then shoveled a pass to Hrdina, who beat the defenseless Shields from just outside the crease.

''A breakdown at the end cost us the game,'' said coach Robbie Ftorek, who planned to speak to his team today about yesterday's late-morning trade of goalie John Grahame to Tampa Bay. ''You win with the effort of the other night [Saturday's 6-2 thrashing of Toronto]. You don't win with the effort of tonight.''

Yes, the Bruins outshot the visitors, 32-20, but there were very few quality chances or decent rebound opportunities. The Bruins were 0 for 1 on the power play, making them 0 for 19 over a seven-game stretch. Their record since Dec. 8 is 3-12-1, 7 of a possible 32 points.

With a five-game losing streak behind them after Saturday's win, the Bruins were taking on a Pittsburgh team that was experiencing a losing streak (three games) of its own and playing with a hobbled Mario Lemieux, who took three first-period shifts before his lingering groin injury ended his night.

Pittsburgh needed a lift and got it from Caron - called up a week ago from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL - whose sharp glove save on Sean O'Donnell late in the third period blunted the Bruins' last good scoring chance.

The man at the other end of the rink was also on the spot after what happened earlier in the day.

''Yeah, I was surprised,'' said Shields. ''[Grahame] skated with us, and two minutes later he was gone. There were no rumors before and usually you can see a buildup to these things. But just because he's gone, I'm not going to fault him for the way our team has played the last month. I thought I played well, but obviously not good enough for us to win.''

How the team looked last night, again without captain Joe Thornton (infected elbow), dismayed defenseman Nick Boynton, who was blunt and brief: ''We played like [expletive],'' he said.

The 22-year-old Caron played the last two periods of the Rangers game in his NHL debut last Saturday and stopped all 18 shots he faced to earn the No. 3 star. He was sharp early last night when he stopped Andy Hilbert's wrister, then crouched to smother Hilbert's rebound attempt.

Shortly after, Bruins defenseman Jonathan Girard lost his balance as he attempted to corral the puck just inside the Boston blue line. Girard tried to sweep the puck back into the neutral zone, but instead found the stick of Shean Donovan, who walked in on Shields and had lots of time to deke low and flip the puck over the goalie's shoulder.

But the Bruins regained their composure, tying the score on Mike Knuble's 10th goal of the season and second in as many games. Knuble kicked the puck over to Michal Grosek, who dished it to defenseman Don Sweeney at the left boards. Sweeney then fed a perfect centering pass to Knuble, who kept going to the net. The winger had just about all of the net to convert at 11:47 of the opening period.

There was little else for the Bruins to celebrate.

''We got shots off, but there should have been rebounds there,'' said Knuble. ''It's not that everything went in his glove. We weren't worried about Shields, per se, we were worried about getting a win for everybody in the room. We went through some change today with John Grahame leaving and there'll probably be more change to come. Losing games like this certainly facilitates those changes and maybe forces [management] to work harder to make another deal.''

This story ran on page F1 of the Boston Globe on 1/14/2003.
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