Bruins fall behind early, drop third straight at home

[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 4/7/2002

f you're a glass-half-full person, you're thinking that Joe Thornton's return to the Bruins' lineup - which came yesterday against the New York Rangers at the FleetCenter - should be all the team needs to ensure success in the playoffs.

If you're a glass-half-empty person, you're wondering what in the heck has happened to this team in its last three home games.

The Bruins have dropped three in a row on home ice for the first time all season (although they did get a point in Thursday's overtime loss to the Islanders). Yesterday's 6-4 loss to the Broadway Blueshirts - who are desperately seeking a playoff spot - was particularly dreadful given that the Bruins were down by three goals after 14 minutes.

If the previous two losses at home were of concern because Boston generated a total of one goal, yesterday's was because the Bruins' defensively sound structure was anything but.

''We've got to tighten up,'' said coach Robbie Ftorek. ''We've got to do better things. We can't afford to be playing as loose as we've been playing and making some of the decisions we've been making. We've got to be more concerned about what we've got to do than about what the other team has to do. We're not doing exactly what we feel we're supposed to be doing, so we have to work at that and correct it. We don't want to make the turnovers we're making.''

Thanks to Petr Nedved's two goals - at 1:53 and 11:58 - and Sandy McCarthy's at 13:53, the Rangers had a quick 3-0 lead. The Bruins cranked up their sputtering power play to get their first goal when Brian Rolston potted his 30th of the season at 16:32. It marked just the second time in their last 31 chances the Bruins had scored with the man advantage.

Eric Lindros gave the Rangers back their three-goal cushion at 7:30 of the second. Glen Murray, however, made it 4-2 at 16:44 on Boston's second power-play goal. The Bruins tried to close the gap even further when Kyle McLaren's shot beat 18-year-old Dan Blackburn with 55.9 seconds left in the second but Martin Lapointe was whistled off for goaltender interference, nullifying the score.

After Martin Rucinsky made it 5-2 at 3:18 of the third, the Bruins began chipping away. Bill Guerin tallied his 38th of the year at 4:02 and Sergei Samsonov (No. 29) pulled Boston within one at 15:24. But Matthew Barnaby's empty-netter at 19:20 sealed it.

''We kind of fell into their type of game - run and gun,'' said Bruins goaltender Byron Dafoe. ''We gave up a lot of odd-man rushes, which isn't our style. We made a game of it, but I don't think we want to be doing that. We're usually pretty calm, cool, and collected out there, and stick to our game plan. I don't know if it's maybe because we got behind early that we thought we had to open it up as well to try to get some goals back rather than be patient, but that's definitely not our style. Usually we're a more patient club than that. We're smart in our own end and we wait for our chances. We got away from that.''

If there were any positives, the power play finally got a couple of goals and Thornton - who played one second shy of 21 minutes over 24 shifts in his first game since Feb. 28 after a three-game suspension and then a shoulder injury - looked comfortable.

''The power play clicked, which was great,'' said Dafoe. ''Joe Thornton is a big reason our power play is successful when it is. That's the one thing going into the playoffs, we've got Joe. And our penalty killing has been amazing all year. Our power play we need to pick up on, but this was a step in the right direction.''

The rest of the game was a step in the wrong direction but no one seemed too worried that what sank them will continue.

''I think everybody in here has the confidence that what's happened in these last few games we can correct and get going on the right track before the playoffs,'' said Rolston. ''We've been giving up way too many goals lately and we gave up a lot of odd-man rushes. But I think we have a great team in here. We're the conference leaders right now and I think there's a little reason to be concerned because we haven't won here in a few games, but in the long run we'll be fine.''

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 4/7/2002.
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