Shot in the arm

Rare Sweeney goal lets Bruins salvage a point

[ Game summary ]

By Dave Caldwell, Globe Correspondent, 2/24/2003

NIONDALE, N.Y. - The Bruins were about to end another empty day on the road when Don Sweeney, a defenseman who had 50 goals in 1,037 National Hockey League games, loaded up to shoot. This was no time to be picky. Anything looked good.

Sweeney's shot turned out to be perfect. It sailed over New York Islanders defenseman Mattias Timander, then streaked past goaltender Garth Snow with 2 minutes 24 seconds left in regulation, and the Bruins salvaged a 4-4 tie yesterday.

''I don't have a good shot,'' Sweeney said later, smiling, ''but I had a good one there.''

Sweeney's second goal of the season was good enough to get a valuable point for the Bruins, who managed only one victory and two ties on a frustrating seven-game road trip. They play Western Conference leader Dallas tomorrow night, but they left the arena in a better mood.

''The effort's been great,'' coach Robbie Ftorek said. ''I can't complain about the effort at all.''

Jason Blake gave the Islanders a 4-3 lead with a breakaway goal at 13:32 of the second period, and New York, two points ahead of the Bruins in the Eastern Conference standings, bore down on defense in the third period.

But the Bruins were given just enough room to continue to threaten. The Islanders failed to score on two power plays midway through the period, and the Bruins spent most of the rest of the period in the New York zone.

Finally, Sweeney took a sharp cross-ice pass from Jozef Stumpel and scored. Sweeney is on a bit of a streak. He scored his first goal of the season Feb. 11 in a 3-1 loss to Montreal.

''That was a nice goal - a goal-scorer's goal,'' Boston left wing P.J. Axelsson said.

Sweeney chuckled softly when Axelsson's analysis was relayed to him, then said, ''It was just exactly where I wanted to put it.''

The Islanders took the first six shots of the game and scored once. Jason Wiemer, the left wing on the ferocious line centered by Dave Scatchard, charged at Steve Shields and scored 4:05 into the game.

The goal was Wiemer's ninth of the season and second in as many games. Scatchard probably could have scored just as easily, because Boston also left him uncovered as he skated toward Shields.

But the Bruins took the next 14 shots and scored twice. Islanders defenseman Roman Hamrlik had no choice but to drag down Axelsson as he stormed toward the goal, and the Bruins took eight shots in the first 35 seconds of the power play.

''We kind of had to,'' Axelsson said. ''They had been all over us in the first couple of minutes.''

Snow stopped everything, so right wing Glen Murray tried a wrist shot just after he skated over the blue line. The puck squirted past Timander and sailed past Snow at 8:13. It was Murray's 30th goal of the season.

''If we could get a whole game together, it would be nice for team morale,'' Murray said.

The Bruins began pounding Snow with long shots, and another led to Brian Rolston's 22d goal at 10:01. Axelsson fought off Kenny Jonsson to keep the puck in the Islanders' zone, and Sean Brown flipped a 60-foot shot that Snow stopped.

But Snow did not cover the puck, and Rolston charged toward it, worked it free, and muscled it into the goal for a 2-1 Boston lead. It lasted less than 31/2 minutes, because another Islanders line began forechecking with a vengeance.

Shields scooted behind his net to play a loose puck, but Mark Parrish got there and knocked the puck free. Shawn Bates got it and backhanded it through the crease to Michael Peca.

Peca, left untouched by the defense, rapped in his 12th goal at 13:24. He would get his 13th less than three minutes later on a power play, after Marty McInnis tugged down Islanders center Alexei Yashin in the Bruins' zone.

As the Islanders looked for a shot, they got a bonus when Boston defenseman Nick Boynton was called for tripping. Peca, no more than 5 feet from Shields, took a pass from Parrish and grandly whipped in a backhand to make it 3-2 at 15:36.

But that lead did not last long, either. With two Islanders serving penalties, Stumpel took a pass from Joe Thornton and tapped in his 13th goal at 2:39 of the second.

Blake's goal followed a fight between Wiemer and Brown, who had crunched Shawn Bates into the boards with a clean check at center ice later in the period. Blake would score 18 seconds later.

Jonathan Girard lost control of the puck inside the blue line. Scatchard knocked it free to Blake, who raced past Bryan Berard on a breakaway.

Shields thought he had stopped the shot, but it had just enough on it to trickle past him. It was the 19th goal of the season for Blake, who entered the season with only 19 goals in 194 NHL games.

But another player who has not scored much came up with a bigger goal.

''It was nice for Donnie, and nice for us, obviously,'' Ftorek said.

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 2/24/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.