They're taken for Wild ride at Fleet

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 11/9/2001

ince the season started, if there's been one key criticism of the Bruins, it's that they haven't been scoring.

But there has been no knock on their defensive play, which has routinely been outstanding. Between the play of goaltender Byron Dafoe, the league-leading penalty killing, and coach Robbie Ftorek's overall scheme, there have been no disparaging words about Boston's play in its own zone.

Until now.

The Bruins were sloppy in all zones last night at the FleetCenter and the goaltending of John Grahame, who was making just his third start, was shaky at best. It added up to an easy 5-3 victory for the second-year Wild.

Ftorek laid no blame at the feet of his goaltender.

''People were booing and then [mock cheering] Grahame,'' said Ftorek. ''People have to realize, or I hope they realize, before the puck gets down to Grahame, it has to beat three, four, or five guys. Just because Grahame is the last one that gets beaten, all the other guys are just as responsible.''

Grahame, however, seemed very bothered by the game.

''I couldn't get into a rhythm,'' he said. ''That was the biggest thing. They had some opportunities on the power play and you've got to stand tall as a goalie and you've got to be that sixth guy out there and it just didn't happen for me tonight.''

The game started off well enough, as Boston took a 1-0 lead less than 20 seconds into the first.

Joe Thornton, who was parked in the right corner, dished a pass to Martin Lapointe in the far right circle. Lapointe relayed it to Sergei Samsonov in the slot and his one-timer beat former UMass-Lowell goaltender Dwayne Roloson at the 17-second mark.

From there, it became a battle between the top penalty-killing unit in the NHL vs. the best power play, owned by the surprising Wild. Minnesota won.

Left wing Andrew Brunette, on the right side, delivered a pass to Jim Dowd at the left circle. Dowd teed up a slapper that beat Grahame to the top left corner at 4:14. It was the first power-play goal Boston surrendered at home this season after killing off the first 32 opportunities. It turned out to be the first of three.

The Wild struck again on their next power play only four seconds into the man advantage. With defenseman Nick Boynton off for holding, Dowd beat Brian Rolston on the faceoff in the left circle and the puck went to defenseman Filip Kuba at the point. Kuba blasted a slapper past Grahame at 10:49 and Minnesota had the lead for good.

''I lose the faceoff clean and they get a shot from the point and it goes in,'' said Rolston, who attributed the poor penalty killing to perhaps a little laziness or complacency. ''It's a frustrating thing. I just have to, on my part, bear down in those situations. It was one of those nights. Things went awry early. The one bright point is we continued to press and play hard, we didn't fold the tent, but it was one of those nights.''

Less than a minute later, the Wild went up, 3-1, scoring their third goal on just their fifth shot. This time it was Brunette, who slalomed down the slot with the Bruins' defense sound asleep and beat Grahame with a forehander that he tucked inside the left post at 11:24.

Things only got worse for Boston. Former Bruin Sergei Zholtok made it a three-goal lead at 17:39 with his second of the season. His shot from the left circle beat Grahame to the stick side. It was Minnesota's fourth goal on just six shots.

The Wild's power play struck again at 2:53 of the second period as Brunette scored his second of the game (and picked up his fourth point), giving them a 5-1 lead.

The Bruins once again were badly outshooting their opponent but couldn't finish.

The team looked tired and out of synch for much of the night, with only an occasional offensive flurry.

P.J. Axelsson pulled the Bruins to within 5-2 with an unassisted shorthanded goal at 7:37 after he stole the puck from Zholtok, giving Axelsson his first of the season.

Samsonov then picked up his second of the night, and No. 100 of his career, at 16:10 as the Bruins forged a desperate comeback.

Boston finished with a season-high 56 shots, outshooting the Wild, 22-0, in the third, but the team couldn't climb back from the early deficit. It was the biggest margin any team has been outshot and won since the North Stars were outshot, 68-19, by Los Angeles March 26, 1981.

''It's very difficult to win when you give up three [on the power play],'' said Ftorek. ''We did have scoring chances and we could've been in it, but we didn't put them in when we had the opportunities. In the third, we came out and played well the last 10 minutes, and that's the way we should probably play the whole game.''

As down as the Bruins were, Bill Guerin said no one should overreact.

''We have about 60-some-odd games left,'' said Guerin. ''This can be a learning experience. It's too early in the season to get bummed out and pack it in because of one game. It wasn't our best game but we have to come back stronger. If you go 15 games with great efforts and a lot of points and then you have one that's not so great, I might take that. I think I will.''

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 11/9/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.