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BRUINS 6, LIGHTNING 2 Dafoe injured before Lightning struck down [ Game summary ]
Other nights, they look like pretenders, such as in Friday's dreadful effort in Atlanta.
Last night the Bruins looked like contenders as they drilled the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-2, at the FleetCenter in a physical, chippy game.
Penalties were plentiful, physical confrontations abundant, and team support was everywhere as players stood up for each other all over the ice.
The top players, who have been inconsistent the last couple of months, were dominant. Jason Allison had a pair of goals and an assist, Bill Guerin and Joe Thornton each had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Samsonov had a pair of assists. Defenseman Jonathan Girard, who is coming into his own, had two goals and an assist, matching a career high.
The game was jarring for the Bruins at the start when they lost No. 1 goaltender Byron Dafoe only 1:24 into the action when he strained his right hamstring and had to be helped to the bench by teammates. The play that led up to the injury resulted in a goal by Tampa Bay. Bruins defenseman Patrick Traverse lost the puck and center Brian Holzinger collected it and dashed up the ice. He dished a pass to left wing Fredrik Modin, who lured Dafoe out of the net on his forehand, switched to his backhand, and directed a shot into the empty cage.
Dafoe, who was on crutches after the game, said it's not as serious as the left hamstring injury that he suffered in the second game of the year. However, he's expected to be out a minimum of two weeks.
''Before I came to the rink, I was watching this PBS special on injuries in sports,'' said Dafoe. ''They were talking about Wayne McBean [who played seven NHL seasons from the late 1980s into the mid-'90s] and about how he tore his knee up. It was pretty interesting. But I won't be watching those the day of a game anymore; it's bad karma.''
Peter Skudra, who replaced Dafoe Friday in Atlanta after the listless Bruins gave up two goals to the Thrashers, came in and picked up the victory.
Thornton, who was back after serving a two-game suspension, evened it up at 7:31. Don Sweeney chipped the puck from the defensive end up the boards, and Tampa Bay defenseman Cory Sarich missed it at the blue line. It turned into a foot race between Thornton and Sarich, which Thornton won. He drove through the left circle and fired a shot into the top right corner of the net over goalie Kevin Weekes for his 17th goal of the year.
''Joe Thornton makes a big difference for us,'' said coach Mike Keenan. ''We can't afford to have people out of that position. He made a big difference in terms of his ability and his presence and giving us the depth at the center ice position that we need. I think the fact that Thornton was in the lineup takes a lot of the workload off of Allison.''
Girard scored the next two goals, both on the power play, at 8:44 and 10:01.
Allison potted his first of two at 2:51 off a rebound in the second period, for his first goal in seven games. Then Matthew Barnaby pulled the Lightning to within 4-2 on a power play at 6:26.
There was plenty of rough stuff in this one. Feisty right wing Mike Johnson set off a full-scale skirmish at 10:43 when he tried to kick the puck away from Skudra as the goalie was trying to contain it. Allison jumped in to protect Skudra and everyone got involved.
''We've got to play team tough,'' said Allison. ''You watch the good teams. You think someone is going to kick Detroit's goalie or Dallas's goalie, no, he's going to get knocked down. That's how we have to play. You have to punish guys who whack at your goalie.''
The Lightning had their own goalie problems, losing Weekes at 17:31 when he suffered a right groin strain. He was replaced by Dieter Kochan.
The Bruins added goals in the third by Guerin, his 29th on a power play at the 31-second mark and Allison put it out of reach at 3:01 with his 21st of the year after he buried a feed from Andrei Kovalenko.
In all, it was a physically demanding, emotionally exhausting game and unlike the previous night, the Bruins were willing to pay the price.
''We have a tough team,'' said Allison. ''We can all play physical and no one intimidates us, that's for sure. Everyone sticks up for each other. I think a lot of times we don't initiate the physical play, we wait to see what happens in the game. There's no reason why we shouldn't initiate it because of how tough we can be.''
This story ran on page F01 of the Boston Globe on 2/11/2001.
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ome nights, the Bruins look like bona fide contenders, a force to be reckoned with.