Bruins struggle mightily in loss

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 2/1/2000

ne step forward, another one back. After a terrific shutout against the Buffalo Sabres Saturday, the Bruins were hoping to follow up with another one against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim last night.

Instead, their penalty killing failed them, their offense all but deserted them, and their execution was inconsistent at best.

There are 52 games down, 30 to go, and the Bruins are still without an identity, yet still in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race. You figure it out.

Last night, the game belonged to Ducks superstars Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya, who netted two goals and two assists apiece on the way to a 4-2 victory.

''Their best players were better than our best players,'' said coach Pat Burns. ''When you let Kariya and Selanne do what they did tonight, they're going to beat you every time.

''We're all disappointed. This is probably one of our real bad games in the last eight or nine. We didn't kill penalties very good tonight. We didn't force them at all.''

Kariya got the Ducks off and running at 3:54 when he tipped a Steve Rucchin shot past goalie Byron Dafoe. Rucchin had the puck in the right circle and pulled up on Ray Bourque, who lost his balance as Rucchin rifled the puck at the net.

The Bruins rallied to tie it on Joe Thornton's 13th goal of the year. Thornton picked off the puck in the defensive zone and started a four-on-one break. P.J. Axelsson delivered a drop pass to Rob DiMaio in the left circle. DiMaio made a perfect feed to Thornton, who was driving to the net from the right side, and he fired it past goalie Guy Hebert at 5:12.

The next two goals belonged to Selanne, Nos. 21 and 22, which he potted on the man-advantage. On the first, defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky picked off an attempted clear by Boston and relayed a pass to Kariya. Kariya made the quick pass over to Selanne in the left circle and his shot beat Dafoe at 9:34, ending the Bruins' run of 10 straight kills.

''It was kind of off a broken play,'' said Bourque. ''I got it in front and I've got to get that puck out and I gave it right to the D. Then everyone was scrambling from that point on to try to get out and get in position. They've got guys who can shoot the puck. We couldn't make the adjustment.''

Joe Murphy took an ill-advised cross-checking penalty that led to the Ducks' third goal at 14:44, one Dafoe had no prayer on.

Kariya, positioned along the right-wing boards, gunned it to Selanne, who was uncovered outside the left post and one-timed it in.

''It was mistakes,'' said Bourque. ''I got too aggressive on my part in front again. I thought the guy broke his stick and I'd be able to get more aggressive and play more of a four-on-four but I don't think everybody knew he had a broken stick so I kind of reacted a little too quick. Kariya made a great pass across and Selanne was there again.''

At the 16-minute mark of the second period, the Ducks thought they had another goal on the man-advantage when Selanne beat Dafoe with a shot from the left circle. But the referee ruled it no goal because Rucchin was in the crease and interfered with Dafoe's ability to make a save.

The Bruins pulled within 3-2 at 9:20 of the third with Anson Carter scoring his 21st of the year, getting help from Thornton, who was the Bruins' best player. Thornton, once again parked behind the net, relayed a backhand feed to Carter at the edge of the crease and he rapped it into the right side of the net.

''At 3-1, it was basically over,'' said Burns. ''We came back and made it 3-2 but then we gave up another bad one.''

That bad one was Kariya's second of the night at 15:10, when he took a pass from Selanne and one-timed it past Dafoe.

''We weren't very good tonight,'' said Burns. ''It was basically that.''

This story ran on page C01 of the Boston Globe on 2/1/2000.
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