4 of a kind for Andreychuk

Bruins ride his hot hand, deck Lightning

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 10/29/99

When it was clear last summer that Dmitri Khristich wasn't coming back to Boston, the Bruins went looking for an offensive replacement.

Enter Dave Andreychuk. Andreychuk, who for his first 17 seasons was a Bruin killer before signing with the team as a free agent in the offseason, was the difference last night as he tallied four goals in a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the FleetCenter.

After an 0-5-4 start, the Bruins are 3-0-1 in their last four games. Remarkably, the Bruins more than doubled what they previously had produced in a game this year.

Even Andreychuk's teammates marveled at his production.

"I knew he was really going to be a special player for us," said defenseman Ray Bourque, who many a night had to defend against Andreychuk. "Now I really know why he scored all those goals, just seeing how he goes about his business. I've never seen a guy never give up on a puck like he does. Every day in practice, every drill, he's on that puck until it's in the net. He's hungry to score and he knows how to do it.

"When he was in New Jersey, he was kind of playing on the second and third lines. Here, he's one of our big guys, our go-to guys. I think he's really enjoying the situation and he's making the best of it. It was a perfect fit for both sides."

In the first 11:31, the Bruins raced out to a 4-0 lead. Boston took full advantage of Tampa Bay's penalty trouble and scored three goals on the power play, with Andreychuk picking up his sixth and seventh tallies of the season.

"[Tampa] played [Wednesday] night and they wanted to get off to a good start, they wanted to be aggressive," said Andreychuk. "Sometimes that backfires. I don't think we did anything special, but coming off a road trip, we had to be extra careful, especially in that first game at home, and we capitalized on it."

Andreychuk's first came at 4:16 and Bourque drilled a shot past goalie Daren Puppa at 9:54. Boston's next two goals came only 22 seconds apart. During the power play, Jason Allison skated around behind the net and came out near the left post, trying to bury the puck through Puppa's pads. It bounced off one of them and right to Andreychuk, who beat Puppa with a backhander into the top of the net at 11:09.

Lightning coach Steve Ludzig had seen enough and pulled Puppa (eight shots, three goals) in favor of Kevin Hodson. Hodson didn't fare well in the early going, as he surrended a goal on the first shot he faced, but all in all played better than Puppa, though he was tagged with the loss.

At 11:31, Joe Thornton made it 4-0 with his second of the year.

The Lightning rallied for the next three goals. During a three-on-two rush, left wing Andreas Johansson took a pass from Robert Petrovicky and beat goalie Rob Tallas to the glove side at 17:44.

At 5:43 of the second, center Vincent Lecavalier beat Tallas with a backhand shovel shot, pulling the Lightning to within 4-2.

Tampa made it even tighter at 13:52 when right wing Stan Drulia took center Chris Gratton's centering pass, traveled through the crease, and pinballed around with the puck. Tallas appeared to have corralled it, but Drulia jabbed it free and into the cage.

"I didn't particularly like the game," said coach Pat Burns. "I thought we gave up a lot of unnecessary chances. If we'd have played against a team that could finish, we would've been in a lot of trouble in the second period. The goals that were scored were nice, but I thought we gave up a lot of chances."

Only 21 seconds after Tampa Bay's third goal, though, Andreychuk completed his 11th career hat trick to give Boston some breathing room. Allison beat defenseman Bill Houlder down low in the left corner and relayed the puck right to Andreychuk in front. He buried his shot, and the Bruins were up, 5-3, at 14:13.

For some reason, Ludzik opted to put the shaky Puppa back into the game for the third period. The Bruins took advantage of that and scored a pair of goals 1:18 apart to close out the scoring. Andreychuk potted No. 4 of the night at 6:19, and Steve Heinze chipped in his third of the year at 7:37.

All told, Andreychuk, Allison, and Anson Carter combined for four goals and five assists.

"That line is a big line," said Burns. "There's a lot of size and weight on that line. When they get that puck into a situation where they can work it down low, they can create a lot of havoc."