[ Game summary ]

By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff, 10/27/2002

he echoes of Terry O'Reilly Night far in the distance, the Bruins returned to regular-season programming on FleetStreet last night with something less than the all-out, foot-to-the-floor, chin-to-the-boards effort that characterized their now-beatified patron saint of rough-and-tumble hockey.

But in the end, in a dramatic finish, they had what it took to keep an early-season victory parade rolling along when Brian Rolston snapped in a power-play goal with 25.3 seconds remaining for a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers.

''It wasn't pretty, but it was 2 points,'' acknowledged coach Robbie Ftorek, his charges now a surprising and impressive 5-1-2 this season, their only loss coming opening night in Minnesota. ''We won, that's the important thing.''

Before a rainy-night crowd of 12,803 - small but respectable, considering the expansionist Thrashers were the opponents and the weather was dreadful - the Bruins blew leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 before finally knocking out of one of their peskiest menaces. It took Rolston's second goal of the night to win it, off a pretty half-board feed from power-play recruit Jozef Stumpel. A handful of quality saves by netminder Steve Shields (total saves: 28) contributed to the victory.

Cruising into the slot on the power play, Rolston one-timed a 20-foot slapper, with the towering Jumbo Joe Thornton jamming the slot on netminder Milan Hnilicka.

It was Rolston's first of the night, earlier in the period, that had provided the temporary 3-2 lead, and before that he had just missed connecting for one of his trademark shorthanded strikes (nine last season), which would have provided a likely insurmountable 3-1 lead. All in all, though, it was a solid night's work from the talented forward who has turned into the grand prize of the Ray Bourque-goes-to-a-Cup-winner trade.

''We changed our power play with Stumpy,'' noted Rolston, referring to how Stumpel has filled in at left wing, where Marty McInnis has been keeping Sergei Samsonov's (wrist injury) spot warm. ''And we had Joe in front - not a whole lot of goalies are going to see around Joe. I one-timed it ... not a spectacular shot, by any means, but it did the job.''

Meanwhile, the lowly Thrashers fell to a moribund 0-7-0-1. If the Georgians don't win one fast, head coach Curt Fraser likely will be sent packing. The truth is, they aren't all that bad, and a little more jump in the first likely would have given them at least 1 point here in the Hub of Hockey. But by the time they began to get their skating legs, McInnis already had nailed in the 1-0 lead, with help from Nick Boynton and Thornton.

The McInnis goal was just the beginning of the goal swapping. With 6:39 to go in the second, someday superstar Ilya Kovalchuk flicked a short-range lightning wrister by Shields - with Boynton chasing from behind - for the first of three deadlocks.

Just over two minutes later, Thornton picked up his goal, walking in penalty-shot-like off a turnover Don Sweeney forced in the neutral zone. The 2-1 lead held up through the second intermission.

Then came the wild 'n' wooly third. Tony Hrkac knotted it, 2-2, on a power play, just some 20 seconds after Rolston had missed with his shorthanded attempt at the other end.

''Rollie's got his legs going, and that's great to see,'' said Ftorek. ''He was missing that earlier in the season, but he's got it going now, and that's where his success comes from.''

He may have been short on the shorthander, but Rolston was back with the 3-2 lead at 7:42 when P.J. Axelsson, after missing with a pass attempt to Mike Knuble, regained possession and swept out a short feed from behind the goal line for Rolston's doorstep pot. Bruins, 3-2. But not for long. With 4:44 left, the desperate Atlantans knotted it one last time when Daniel Tjarnqvist knocked in a Hrkac feed, again on a power play. (The Thrashers were 2 of 5 on the advantage.)

The winner came with Yuri Butsayev in the penalty box on a hooking violation, taking his seat with 2:04 to go. Not making much sense on the advantage - one of their few shortcomings this season - the Bruins took a breather when Ftorek signaled for a timeout with 64 seconds left. Once the puck was down, it was just over 30 seconds later when Rolston swept up from behind to collect the sweet feed from Stumpel.

''We didn't play great in the second and third periods,'' said Shields, who is turning into one of GM Mike O'Connell's best trades since taking over the full-time boss duties. ''But our power play clicked at the right time, and that's what counts.''

This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 10/27/2002.
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