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BRUINS 0, SABRES 0 [ Game stats ]
They zero in vs. Sabres
The Bruins have gotten back to playing their system, one of sound defense. They've gotten back to playing the way they have to if they want to win. It wasn't a win, no, but it was a step in the right direction.
Even more encouraging, it was Byron Dafoe's 19th career shutout (23 saves) in a performance that resembled those of the Dafoe of last season. It was the third shutout for young Buffalo netminder Martin Biron, who made 39 stops.
''We gave up no goals. That's a step in the right direction,'' said forward Steve Heinze, who turned in arguably his best performance of the year. ''It's defense first around here. You're not going to lose any games like that. We shut them down and didn't give them a lot of chances and had a ton of chances ourselves. The good part is we did have a ton of chances. Unfortunately, none of them went in.''
The first 40 minutes consisted of some good news and some bad news. The good news was that it was a typical Sabres-Bruins game. But that also was the bad news.
The Bruins outshot the Sabres, 8-6, in a first period that featured three Boston power plays.
At the other end, Dafoe didn't have as much action but was called upon to make some tough stops. At 16:47, defenseman Alexei Zhitnik barreled down to the right circle with P.J. Axelsson crosschecking him from behind, but Zhitnik got off a backhander that Dafoe turned back by stacking his pads.
With 1:16 left, Dafoe stopped Curtis Brown from in close.
Early in the second period, Joe Murphy, who played his best game in a Bruins uniform, had a terrific bid from the left circle (one of his four shots in the period), when he took a pass from Kyle McLaren and attempted to beat Biron from the inside edge of the circle. He failed but the heat the Bruins were applying caused Sabres coach Lindy Ruff to call a timeout at 4:39 to regroup.
The Bruins outshot the Sabres, 18-4, in the second but the Sabres had good chances. Perhaps the best came at 11:05, when Miroslav Satan tested Dafoe with a backhander.
Defensively, the Bruins were sound, just as they were Tuesday night against Toronto. There was little running around and little chaos, helped by good faceoff performances by Anson Carter and Marquis Mathieu. Brandon Smith, who was a last-minute call-up for Don Sweeney (flu), filled in admirably.
Because of the absence of so many regular players, the club was forced to simplify the game plan and that seemed to work to the Bruins' advantage.
''I think we played a perfect game,'' said Dafoe. ''And if you insert a couple of guys on the offensive zone, maybe we score a couple of goals. Obviously we miss [Jason Allison, Dave Andreychuk, and Sergei Samsonov]. Those are three guys who know how to finish.
''The guys played very well who were called up and it almost simplified the game for us. They did the system perfectly. Where we came up short was not getting the puck in the net. You can't really pin that on them because it's not their forte. In our own end, it felt back to normal for me. It simplified it for me.''
The Bruins very nearly scored at 1:42 of the third when Heinze, who had broken an 18-game point/goal drought Tuesday night, rattled a shot off the crossbar.
Another good opportunity came with the Bruins on their sixth power play of the game. Ray Bourque fired a wrist shot from the left point with Rob DiMaio in front, hoping for a rebound. But Biron saw it all the way and gloved it at 9:13.
The Sabres put some pressure on the Bruins, too, but Dafoe held the fort.
With 1:57 left in regulation, Heinze came close again. Murphy tried centering a pass that went off Biron's stick to Heinze. The puck hit Heinze's stick and then he tried to bunt it past Biron, but the goalie snared it with his glove.
''I hit it off my stick and I missed it out of the air,'' said Heinze. ''It was on its way in, it was end over end and going to end up in the net, but he caught it.''
Biron came up big again when he stoned Carter on a shot from the right circle with 10 seconds left.
''We've got to very positive about what we saw,'' said coach Pat Burns. ''I see a lot of positive things.''
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston Globe on 1/14/2000.
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t wasn't a victory. There weren't even any goals scored. But last night's 0-0 tie with the Buffalo Sabres at the FleetCenter was a triumph of sorts.