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BRUINS 5, RANGERS 3 [ Game stats ]
Your team is playing its second game in two nights, it embarrassed its opponent at home only a few days earlier, and the foe wants payback as rumors of impending firings, demotions, and trades run rampant.
Such was the scenario between the surging Bruins and the underachieving New York Rangers last night, but the Bruins managed to escape with a 5-3 victory after squandering a four-goal lead early in the third period at the FleetCenter.
''They'd been off all week,'' said Bruins coach Pat Burns. ''They've had meetings all week. I feared this game a little bit tonight. We spanked them pretty good in their own building, and I knew they were going to react to that some way or another. They certainly came out and gave a full effort. We got some timely goals and they didn't get any timely goals.''
At the beginning of the season, the Bruins weren't getting any breaks, either, starting out 0-5-4. Over their last 12 games, the Bruins are 9-1-2.
There was no scoring in the first period but there was plenty of hitting, especially by the Rangers. The Bruins matched them, however, as Kyle McLaren and Don Sweeney leveled some big checks. The most dangerous hit of the period was at 15:35, when Shawn Bates was cross-checked in the face by Rangers defenseman Mathieu Schneider but there was no penalty called.
Bates got his revenge later, though, when he scored the prettiest goal of the night, which held up as the winner.
In the second period, the Bruins took a 3-0 lead, started by Anson Carter's goal at 6:42 and Jason Allison's first of the year only 42 seconds later. Carter's went in off a scramble in front of goalie Mike Richter and Allison earned his with a wrist shot from the right circle.
''He's been carrying that frustration around with him for awhile,'' said Burns of Allison. ''But the thing with Jason is, he'll get goals as long as he's skating. He won't get goals if he's not skating. I thought [Andre] Savage made a good heads-up pass. He was skating to the net and shooting on stride, and that catches a goaltender sometimes off-balance.''
Defenseman Hal Gill potted his first goal of the year to make it 3-0 at 16:09. Carter, deep down the left side, relayed a pass up to Gill at the left point. Gill blasted a one-timer past Richter with Mikko Eloranta screening in front.
''I don't think I caught it completely flush but enough to give it some gas,'' said Gill. ''I don't know if it hit something, it was kind of curving. It's nice to help out once in a while. At the beginning of the game, I wasn't feeling so great but that lifts your spirits a little bit.''
Bates's goal, also his first of the year, gave the Bruins a short-lived four-goal bulge at 3:46 of the third period. Thornton threaded a perfect lead pass up for Bates, who split the defense on his way to the net. Richter came out to try to challenge him, but Bates made a nice move, the goalie was down and out, and Bates beat Richter with a nice backhander as he left his skates and flew forward.
As the Bruins began to fade, the Rangers turned up the heat. Left wing Jan Hlavac made it 4-1 at 5:58, and less than three minutes later, Mike Knuble took advantage of some confusion in the Bruins' zone as he fired a turnaround slapper from the slot that beat goalie Byron Dafoe at 8:50.
Adam Graves reduced the Bruins' lead to one goal at 15:13. Forward Theo Fleury nearly tied it when he hit the right post with 59 seconds left in regulation, but Thornton sealed it with an empty-net goal with only 1.5 seconds left.
''They were fresh, sitting in our city waiting for us,'' said Dafoe. ''It was a pretty win but the fact we got 2 points is what matters. For us to pull out a win the way we did says a lot for this team.''
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston Globe on 11/19/99.
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t was a game no coach looks forward to.