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BRUINS 2, CANUCKS 2 [ Game stats ]
Canucks outplayed in last two periods
''I think we outplayed them; we outchanced them, for sure,'' said coach Pat Burns, whose club outshot the Canucks, 37-17. ''They got the early goals that put us behind the 8 Ball a little bit, but we had more chances than they did to win the game. We just couldn't finish around the net.''
If the small picture was only so-so, with the team garnering a point after rebounding from a 2-0 deficit, the big picture is decidedly much brighter. In the month of November, the Bruins are 7-2-2; they are 11-2-3 in their last 16 games.
Yesterday didn't start out nearly as well as it ended for Boston.
The Canucks scored twice just over six minutes apart in the first period to put Boston in a hole.
Pesky left wing Brad May started it off with his fourth goal of the season. Former Bruin Greg Hawgood made a nice pass to May, who beat goalie Byron Dafoe from deep in the right circle at 8:04.
The Bruins' breakdowns led to the Canucks' second goal. They resulted in left wing Steve Kariya, in the far left circle, delivering a nice feed to center Andrew Cassels. Cassels shoveled a backhander past Dafoe at the right post and Vancouver was up a pair at 14:21.
Center Jason Allison cut the lead in half with an extraordinary goal just over a minute later - at 15:23. With the Bruins on the power play, Allison took a pass from captain Ray Bourque and darted up the right side. He encountered big defenseman Ed Jovanovski, so he banked the puck off the boards, essentially passing to himself, stepped by Jovanovski, and had a clear path to the net. He beat goalie Garth Snow inside the right post to make it 2-1.
Steve Heinze potted the equalizer at 7:47 of the third, his sixth goal of the season. Center Joe Thornton, who was benched for part of the first period after letting the Canucks romp past him for their second goal, assisted along with Dave Andreychuk. Andreychuk took a shot from the right circle that Snow saved, but the puck caromed right out to Heinze on the left, and he backhanded it into the net.
''I was excited; it was a big goal and we tied it up,'' said Heinze. ''We were a little frustrated. We had a ton of chances and it wasn't going in, so it was definitely exciting to score and I hadn't scored in a couple of games. It was a big goal. We've been playing some good hockey but I'm not sure we've played a full 60 minutes as solid as we can play it, which is a good thing because we've still got room to improve, but we do have to come out better.''
The Bruins had a chance to win it in overtime when Vancouver wing Todd Bertuzzi was sent to the penalty box for holding defenseman Darren Van Impe, giving the Bruins a four-on-three power play. As exciting as it was, with Anson Carter and Heinze having opportunities, Snow held the fort.
''It's so easy to say, `We should've done this or passed it there,''' said Burns. ''But when you're under pressure, it's not as easy as that. It was so-so. It's a question where you have to make the commitment of whether you're going to shoot from the point or whether you're going to try to get it down low. We tried to make passes across, impossible, trying to hit the seam passes out there. Power plays don't always work.''
In this case, it didn't. But despite only tying, the Bruins clearly carried the play for most of the afternoon, particularly after Allison's goal.
''We definitely dominated the game,'' said Dafoe. ''We would've preferred to have had a better first period and not fallen 2-0, but we handled it. We were patient and Jason got a big goal to get us going and in the second and third, we just rolled over them.''
Everywhere, that is, except on the scoreboard.
This story ran on page G01 of the Boston Globe on 11/27/99.
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t wasn't their best of the year and it sure wasn't their worst. On the face of it, yesterday's 2-2 tie with the Vancouver Canucks at the FleetCenter should have yielded more for the Bruins.