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SABRES 6 BRUINS 2 [ Game stats ]
Unbeaten streak ends at 7; Dafoe is driven out of goal
''We weren't in the game at all,'' harrumphed coach Pat Burns after seeing his club's seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) get snapped before a crowd of 18,690 at Marine Midland Arena. ''I haven't been too critical this year no matter what we've [gone] through, but I can't accept that. Soft. We were soft. That was our biggest problem. We didn't finish our hits. We didn't get in there. That's not us.''
At least it wasn't the product the Bruins iced for the last two weeks, when they put together their best streak in some six years. But here, faced with the club that chased them out of last spring's playoffs, the blahs overtook the Black and Gold.
They rated a gentleman's C - for clunker.
''We were flat, right from the get-go,'' said Boston defenseman Kyle McLaren, who suffered a bad sprain of his right thumb and might have to sit out tonight's Vault visit by the Maple Leafs. ''It wasn't our night. We tried to pick it up, but they kept coming and coming.''
The loss, in which $9 million goalie Byron Dafoe also got yanked after 30 minutes, brought the Bruins back to .500 (6-6-4). In rattling off six straight wins, they outscored the opposition, 23-9, but here, against the club that KO'd them in six games of Round 2 last spring, they gave up more goals than they had in one game all year.
''We kind of measure ourselves against this club, this year vs. last year,'' said McLaren. ''Well, we failed the test. We just played bad.''
The Sabres, also.500 (7-7-2), took a 1-0 lead out of the first period (goal by Erik Rasmussen) and salted it away with three goals against Dafoe in the first 10-plus minutes of the middle period.
Vaclav Varada, without a goal in about 10 months (Jan. 18 vs. Florida) made it 2-0 with an embarrassing 55-footer that floated by Dafoe.
''Just a horrible goal, but with some bad luck, too,'' said Dafoe, explaining how Varada's shot eluded him. ''I turned to get it with my blocker, but instead I knocked it in with my stick. The first one got tipped. The others [goals three and four], they were pretty much bang-bang plays. Hey, we had some bad bounces, but all around it wasn't a good effort, and that includes me.''
Before he exited, Dafoe was beaten by Miroslav Satan - after the Bruins failed to clear the puck from the zone - and then by Alexei Zhitnik. He departed for the end of the bench at 10:25 of the second, thumped for four goals on 20 shots. Rob Tallas came in to pick up the pieces.
''I hate to get pulled,'' said Dafoe, whose timing looked that fraction of a second off that can be lethal for netminders. ''I wasn't pulled once last year, so that's really frustrating.''
Burns, explaining why he gave Dafoe the hook, said, ''You don't pull the goalie to blame anyone. Sometimes, it just changes the tempo.''
With Tallas back there, the Bruins were able to cut the lead in half by midway through the third, backed by strikes from Joe Thornton (No. 3) and Steve Heinze (5). But less than two minutes after Heinze one-armed in his goal to make it 4-2, rookie sensation-to-be Maxim Afinogenov, playing his first career game, won a footrace against Thornton and fired in a backhander from the slot. The final stake to the spoked B was Jay McKee's power-play goal - with help from Afinogenov - with 5:09 to go.
The underlying irony in the loss was that it was the first game this season that all of Boston's starting regulars were in the lineup. Dafoe was in net for his second game, and Jason Allison was back centering the top line after missing a couple of games with wrist and forearm injuries. Instead of getting a boost, they got their butts kicked.
''That's a pretty good team,'' said Dave Andreychuk, who saw a sure goal get rubbed out early when Rhett Warrener intentionally knocked the net off its moorings as Andreychuk unloaded a gimme. ''They make good choices coming out of their own end. Hey, they made it to the finals last year. They've got a good system. A good coaching staff. You've got to be prepared when you face them, and we weren't today.''
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston Globe on 11/11/99.
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UFFALO - The Bruins began the night a half-step behind, proceeded to get slower and sloppier, and in the end played perhaps their worst game all season in a 6-2 loss here last night to the Buffalo Sabres.