Point is dulled for Bruins

They're sharp in comeback but edged in OT by Avalanche

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff 2/5/2003

idway through last night's game, Hal Gill took the puck off the boards in the neutral zone and heard Robbie Ftorek's voice in his head. The Bruins coach had told his team at the morning skate to shoot the puck on Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy. He reminded them on practically every shift. So instead of dumping it in from behind the blue line, Gill saw that Roy was hugging the left post so he threw the puck at the net.

Roy, completely fooled, went diving across the crease but the puck beat him at the nine-minute mark of the second period to cut Colorado's lead to 2-1. The Bruins eventually tied the contest with 3:21 left in regulation on a goal by Mike Knuble, but the Avalanche rallied to win, 3-2, on Greg de Vries's goal with 42.3 seconds left in overtime. Although Boston got a point out of it, the team lost its second in a row.

Roy, who has played in an NHL-record 1,004 games, said he felt silly on the goal.

''I looked like a rookie,'' he said.

Roy thought Gill would dump it into the left corner; he didn't think the big defenseman would shoot.

''We decided before the game we wanted to get as many pucks on net,'' said Gill, ''and rather than trying hard around or make a dump, we were going to try to get it on net as much as we could. I figured why not? I figured if I could get him to lean, then at least he wouldn't make a clean save and stickhandle the way he always does.''

Gill felt a little bit vindicated because his mistake resulted in Scott Parker's goal at 2:31 of the first period. Parker converted a centering pass from Serge Aubin that gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead.

''I almost had him,'' said Gill. ''That's not good enough. I had him but I didn't have him, and you can't do that.''

It was the first goal for Parker since Feb. 4, 2002, a span of 36 games. He returned last night after missing 13 games with a foot injury.

Avalanche star Peter Forsberg scored the second goal, at 16:44 of the first, on a shot that very few players in the NHL could bury.

Forsberg got the puck behind the net after goalie Steve Shields tried to clear it out and it caromed off defenseman Don Sweeney. Forsberg skated into the deep part of the left circle, and with a pair of defenders in front of the net and virtually nothing to shoot at, he roofed a shot that found daylight at the top of the left corner.

It was Forsberg's 17th goal of the year.

More serious than the deficit though, was an injury to defenseman Sean O'Donnell, who sprained his right knee when he hit the boards awkwardly while trying to check Steve Reinprecht.

The Bruins' power play, which has been productive of late, couldn't get out of its own way. They had six man-advantage opportunities, and not only did they not score on them, they failed to land so much as a shot on net in the final three.

Knuble tied the contest at 16:39 of the third, beating Roy only seconds after hitting the post with a backhander.

Right wing Glen Murray threaded a pass down to Knuble, and with defenseman Rob Blake on his back, Knuble swept a shot past Roy for his 15th goal of the year.

But de Vries ended it in overtime.

''We spotted them a couple and then did everything we could to get back,'' said Knuble. ''It was probably a good moral victory to get the point but those are the games we have to pull out.''

This story ran on page F1 of the Boston Globe on 2/5/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.