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BRUINS 4, SENATORS 4 [ Game stats ]
''We didn't get the victory,'' lamented Boston netminder Byron Dafoe, who saw Bonk boot home a long slapper by Igor Kravchuk, enabling the Senators to erase the 4-3 deficit while working with a power play and their goalie pulled for a six-on-four advantage. ''But right now, we'll take whatever points we can get.''
Stuck with only 17 victories in 53 games, the Bruins actually turned in one of their better efforts of late. By the count of coach Pat Burns, they held a lopsided 28-18 advantage in scoring chances (culled from a 42-28 shot lead over 65 minutes). For two weeks, there have been some signs of improvement, hints that they can pull themselves together over the next 10 weeks, dust themselves off, and steal a playoff berth.
But last night was yet another example of Boston's lack of depth, its lack of scoring touch, and its often porous work in the defensive end.
The Senators, with four regulars down with the flu, including No. 2 scorer Shawn McEachern, were ripe for being run out of the Corel Center (something their owner promises to do, anyway). The Bruins needed all of that 28-18 advantage in good scoring chances to erase deficits of 1-0 and 2-1, and didn't take a lead until Rob DiMaio connected with 1:04 remaining in the second to make it 3-2.
The Bruins led for 12 minutes 39 seconds, only to see the potential win disappear when Bonk directed in Kravchuk's 60-foot slapper.
''I think we played well enough to win,'' said captain Ray Bourque. ''But a few things went on.
''The effort was good. I think we have to be pleased with a lot of what we did tonight. If we keep playing like that, we'll get our points.''
Indeed, the Bruins had no fewer than four prime opportunities to win it in OT. Anson Carter was turned back on a hard slapper only 41 seconds into the extra session. Joe Thornton followed by missing not one but two prime chances, first unable to pot one in an open net and later unable to bang in a perfect DiMaio feed. With 50 seconds left, P.J. Axelsson walked in on a breakaway and was thwarted on a short-range backhander.
''Yeah, I should have had that,'' said Axelsson, whose second-period goal erased Ottawa's 1-0 lead. ''The ice was pretty bad at that point, but still I should have had it. And Ron [Tugnutt] played a pretty good game in net.''
With the help of a five-on-three power play, the Bruins appeared to have it won in the third when Bourque, set up nicely in the high slot by a Thornton feed, drilled home a 45-foot slapper for the 4-3 lead. Only 7:27 stood between the Bruins and the 2 points. But time wasn't flying. Most times this season, the seconds tick by excruciatingly slow.
With 1:13 to go in regulation, amid another scramble in the Boston end, Bourque was whistled off for slashing. He was still in the box 40 seconds later when the Senators, with Tugnutt pulled, potted the equalizer.
Two nights, 1 point. The Bruins were barely in contention Monday when the Ducks came to Causeway Street and pinned a 4-2 defeat on them. Here, against the too-many-guys-with-the-flu Senators, they had a prime opportunity to buy themselves a little ammunition in what is shaping up as one doozy of a battle for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. Not to be.
''Pretty disappointing,'' said DiMaio, suitably disgruntled by a number of referee Greg Kimmerly's calls. ''I thought we played well enough to win. There were so many calls - I don't know which were right and which were wrong - and that dictated the outcome of the game.''
One more game to go before the All-Star break. The Maple Leafs are in town tomorrow night. It is only Feb. 2, but it already is officially time to begin watching those out-of-town scores. Grab scratch pad and pocket calculator, and keep an eye on the March 14 trade deadline. It's enough to make you forget that pitchers and catchers report soon.
This story ran on page C01 of the Boston Globe on 2/2/2000.
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ANATA, Ontario - Points growing more precious by the hour, the Bruins had a sure victory squib through their legs once again last night, forced to settle for a 4-4 tie against a flu-depleted Ottawa Senators club that discovered a sure cure for body aches, fever, and runny nose - a Radek Bonk goal with 33 seconds remaining in regulation.