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BRUINS 3, THRASHERS 1 [ Game stats ] Bruins struggle past expansion Atlanta
In a season that has already proven that nothing will come easy for the Bruins, there was a little bit of danger associated with last night's matchup against the first-year Thrashers, a club made up of either young kids just starting out or journeymen who had changed teammates several times in their careers.
The Bruins had only one win in their last eight games (1-4-3), but they prevailed over the game and hard-working Thrashers, 3-1, at sold-out Philips Arena.
The Bruins were thrilled to get the victory.
''It doesn't really matter who we're playing against,'' said Anson Carter, who had two goals and an assist. ''Two points is two points, and that's the bottom line for our hockey club right now.''
Coach Pat Burns said he knew it would be tough sledding because the Thrashers were shut out in their own building Wednesday night against Washington.
''You can't expect a team that just got beat, 4-0, in their own rink to stand by and watch that go, but we had a lot of chances,'' said Burns. ''I think we kept them to four chances after two periods and we didn't bury the ones we had again. They're a tough team to play against.''
The Bruins knew full well there would be a different flavor and a different atmosphere than existed in Pittsburgh Tuesday. Against the Penguins, it was a finesse game, geared toward skating and trying to prevent Jaromir Jagr and his teammates from being able to complete their tic-tac-toe maneuvers.
Last night was much more rough and tumble. The Bruins knew they'd be in for a fight with the desperate expansion club. It took all of nine seconds for the fisticuffs to begin (Bruins right wing Joe Murphy taking on Atlanta left wing Johan Garpenlov) and the rough play continued throughout.
One of the Bruins' many objectives was to get on the scoreboard early. They achieved that at 5:49, with defenseman Hal Gill potting his second goal of the season, with help from Dave Andreychuk and Carter.
Boston made it a two-goal advantage later in the period, with Gill setting up the score. Gill, positioned in the right circle, backhanded a pass across for Carter in the slot. Carter drilled it past goalie Norm Maracle for the 2-0 lead at 12:42.
About a minute and a half later, the Thrashers rallied to close the gap to 2-1 on a power-play strike by center Ray Ferraro.
Right wing Dean Sylvester, behind the net, dished a centering pass out in front. Defenseman Kyle McLaren tried to sweep it away but missed, and the puck went to Ferraro, who beat Byron Dafoe at 14:11.
The Bruins had several other offensive opportunities in the period but Maracle made some tough stops.
Not much changed in the scoreless second period as the teams continued to bruise each other. Both Maracle and Dafoe were called on to make some difficult saves. At 12:36, Maracle came up big when the Bruins had a three-on-two rush. Carter blasted a shot from the right circle that Maracle saved, and Jason Allison was in the slot for the rebound but he couldn't bury it as the puck rolled off his stick.
Just 11 seconds later, Allison came barreling in on Maracle and tried a backhanded bid, but it hit Maracle in the right arm and he was able to corral it.
In the third, the Bruins closed it out with Carter's power-play goal at 19:01 as defenseman Ray Bourque earned his 1,100th career assist.
Dafoe, who had 26 saves, said he was impressed with how hard Atlanta played.
''They really work it hard behind the net,'' he said. ''We got running around a few times, especially in the second. They didn't get shots on net but there were a lot of chances that went wide. They crash the net very well. You've got to give them credit, we knew they'd come hard and they did.''
This story ran on page G01 of the Boston Globe on 12/18/1999.
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TLANTA - It's the kind of game that keeps coaches up at night, the kind that induces nightmares. When your team is struggling, the last opponent a coach wants to see is the second-worst club in the league.