Point for Bruins

Still Winless, They Salvage Tie With Flyers

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

It's a point.

It's not a victory, but more important, it's not a loss either.

The Bruins earned their first point of the season last night in a 1-1 tie with the Philadelphia Flyers at the FleetCenter. It was also the first point for the Flyers, who scored their first goal of the season in three outings.

In securing the tie, the Bruins avoided equalling their worst start in franchise history (0-4-0), which was done twice (1964-65 and 1942-43). The last time the Bruins started the season 0-3-1 was 1965-66. That season, they went 0-4-1 before getting a 3-1 win at Montreal.

There were several good signs:

- Center Jason Allison looked by far the most comfortable he has in the four games. He was controlling the play at times, passing better, playing with less hesitation, and looking like the Allison of old.

"It's the first game all year that I actually played with confidence and I was a lot stronger,'' said Allison, who is recovering from a sore right forearm. "I was controlling the game at times, which I haven't done all year.''

- Goaltender John Grahame, who was hung out to dry in his first start in Toronto, made 28 saves, several of which were spectacular.

- The Joe Thornton-P.J. Axelsson-Rob DiMaio line continues to impress. It was Axelsson who scored with help from his linemates.

- The lack of work ethic that was so glaring in the earlier contests was absent here. The Bruins actually looked desperate.

"Guys were skating for the puck and going into position faster and the determination was there to want the puck and want to win, which you rarely saw or only saw glimpses of in the first three games,'' said defenseman Kyle McLaren, who landed a game-high 11 hits. "It's going to get better still.''

The Bruins started off as they had in Ottawa Thursday night, scoring a goal in the first minute.

Thornton dished a pass to Axelsson, who was skating into the slot. The puck caromed off Axelsson's skate, he put it on his stick, and beat goalie John Vanbiesbrouck with a forehander for his first tally of the season at the 46-second mark.

The Flyers, who were shut out in back-to-back games for the first time in franchise history in their first two contests, didn't register a shot until 7:24 into the game with left wing John LeClair firing from the left circle; Grahame turned it back.

Once the Flyers started to generate some shots, they put heavy pressure on Grahame. One of the toughest saves he made was with 21.4 seconds remaining in the first period. Grahame, an aggressive netminder, had lost his stick when he used it to pokecheck a Flyer. The puck went out to Mark Recchi, who gunned it at the net, forcing Grahame to make the save.

It was Recchi who broke the Flyers' extended drought midway through the second period. With Anson Carter off for holding, right wing Mikael Renberg dished a pass from the right circle to Recchi in the slot. Recchi let fly a wrist shot that went over Grahame's shoulder and clanged off the inside of the left post to tie the game, 1-1, at 6:42. That goal ended a Philadelphia scoreless streak at 146 minutes 41 seconds.

With about 14 seconds left in the second period and the teams skating four a side, Grahame came up big again. LeClair had blocked a shot by Don Sweeney at the blue line and a favorable bounce gave LeClair a breakaway. The Flyer barreled down the slot and fired a forehander that Grahame stopped with his right toe. LeClair got the rebound and tried again, but Grahame blocked it with the inside of his right pad.

"I just tried to jump out and be as aggressive as I could,'' said Grahame. "I wanted to stay up and make him make the first move and fortunately he shot it and the rebound was there as well so I tried to stick my pad out. It worked out.''

It did more than work out. It buoyed the Bruins significantly and even though they couldn't get anything else past Vanbiesbrouck, they knew Grahame would hold the fort.

"That really boosted our confidence,'' said McLaren.

All in all, it was a step in the right direction.

"This team has always played great when our backs were against the wall,'' said Allison.