Bruins lose magic

Blackhawks use every trick in book

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 3/10/2003

HICAGO -- Only a few minutes after the Bruins were sent packing by the Chicago Blackhawks in a messy 8-5 defeat at the United Center yesterday, a young boy wearing a Blackhawks jersey paused outside the Boston dressing room on his way down the hall.

''That's Boston,'' the kid told his mother as he pointed a thumb in their direction. ''They didn't do very well.''

Not very well, indeed.

Just when it looks like it's safe to say the team has snapped out of its defensive funk, it puts up a stinker like this one. The loss ended their winning streak at three games and was the first victory for the downtrodden Blackhawks in 10 contests (1-7-0-2).

''It wasn't very good, either side,'' said coach Robbie Ftorek. ''But they ended up winning, obviously. Every time there was an error made, both teams seemed to score. It just wasn't a very good game. We had a tremendous amount of turnovers in the neutral zone that killed us. Then we had some mistakes in the defensive zone that didn't make it very good. So we ended up losing, plain and simple. It just wasn't real good.''

Watching the action was more like watching a tennis match. Back and forth, back and forth. Virtually no defense was played. Each team would get the puck, race up ice, and try to score.

The result was a pair of hat tricks for Chicago -- Steve Sullivan and Eric Daze, who also had two assists each.

Sullivan and Theo Fleury, who has been put through waivers by the team, gave the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead only 5:10 in. Left wing Mike Knuble got his first of two at 15:37 on a power play and P.J. Axelsson tied it at 17:05. Sullivan put his team back on top at 18:25 but Knuble pulled the Bruins even again on a penalty shot at 1:12 of the second, giving him 21 goals for the season. It was the only real highlight of the day for Boston as Knuble keeps building on his career year.

After defenseman Burke Henry spilled Knuble into the crease on a breakaway, he knew exactly what he was going to do to try to beat goalie Jocelyn Thibault -- make a fake and then backhand it over him, and that's precisely what happened.

''I just tried to go quick,'' said Knuble, awarded his first penalty shot ever and scoring just the seventh goal on 28 penalty shot attempts in the NHL this season. ''I tried not to really think about it. I'm sure it helped being on the road because the crowd was quiet. Going in, I was thinking about speed. When guys miss on penalty shots, a lot of times they're going too slow. They are trying to get too cute, so I just tried to come at him quick, give him a little fake to see if he would bite on it, and then pull it to my backhand.''

As irritating as yesterday was, Knuble and Axelsson, who is also having a career season and is up to 15 goals, have been bright beacons in an otherwise impossible-to-figure year.

''It's certainly been a dream season for me,'' said Knuble. ''If any positive can come out of [Sergei Samsonov's] injury, I'm happy to be a part of it. We wondered when Billy Guerin left where goals were going to come from. Axy and I have combined for 36, two places where a lot of people didn't think we were going to get goals this year. I know P.J. and I are more than happy to oblige.''

Knuble's enthusiasm after beating Thibault was short lived. Only 28 seconds after Knuble's penalty shot goal, the Blackhawks went ahead to stay. Daze and Sullivan scored again, at 1:40 and 11:52, respectively, to make it 5-3. Axelsson potted his second of the contest at 16:21 to pull to within 1 but Daze struck again at 4:07 of the third. Right wing Glen Murray, who along with center Joe Thornton was a mind-boggling minus-4, continued his production with his 38th of the season at 8:38. But Daze finished his hat trick at 12:48, earning a few green St. Patrick's Day caps (that didn't make it onto the ice for Sullivan's trick) that were given out by the Blackhawks before the game. Defenseman Lyle Odelein closed it out at 15:56 and the Bruins limped out of the arena and off to Ottawa with 13 contests remaining in the regular season.

Was it disappointing? Infuriating? Confounding?

''Keep going,'' said defenseman Don Sweeney. ''Absolutely.''

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 3/10/2003.
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