[ Game summary ]

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 10/21/2001

ASHVILLE - It had been a grueling but exhilarating couple of days. On Friday at around 4:30 a.m., upon learning that his wife, Megan, was about to give birth to their second child, right wing Mike Knuble jumped on a plane from here to Boston to be with her to welcome the new arrival.

Their daughter, whom they named Anna, weighed in at a healthy 7 pounds 7 ounces, joining big brother Cameron.

After a few hours at home with his family, Knuble flew back here in time for yesterday's morning skate and played last night against the Predators.

If he thought his celebrating was over, he was wrong. Knuble's good fortune only continued, as he scored the deciding goal at 9:10 of the third period to lift the Bruins to a 2-1 victory. The triumph ended a four-game winless streak for Boston (0-2-2), which won for the first time on this six-game trip.

Knuble's goal was astounding because of how much time and space he was given. He took a pass from center Rob Zamuner at his own blue line, skated it through center ice, then cut right. Three Predators, who were bunched up in the slot, seemed almost mesmerized as Knuble, who had only the referee to beat on the way to the net, skated into the right circle and roofed a shot over the right shoulder of goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

''Not bad, not bad at all,'' said coach Robbie Ftorek. ''That one there was really pretty. It was nice for him, real nice. It was nice for us.''

Knuble acknowledged he was running on adrenaline. ''It's been quite a time here the last 36 hours,'' he said. ''It's been fun. It's been grueling going back and forth, but that's what you have to do and it was fun to really chip in and help out and finish it all off.''

Knuble said his odyssey began when his wife called to say she was on her way to Beverly Hospital. ''She called back at [6 a.m. Boston time] and said she was going to stay and that it was probably going to go pretty quick,'' said Knuble. ''So I called [John Bucyk, who handles the team's travel] and he got me a flight at 7:30 a.m. That was to Washington. While I was on my way to Washington, at 8:57 a.m., I found out we had Anna. I continued up to Boston, hung out there at the hospital for the afternoon, showered at home, slept at the hotel for two or three hours, had a car pick me up at 4:15 a.m. [yesterday] to bring me back to Logan, caught a 6:30 a.m. flight, slept for a half-hour, changed planes in Pittsburgh, slept for another half-hour, and got to Nashville and showed up at 10:30 for the pregame skate. It was kind of a crazy 36 hours. It's a pretty good ending, I think. It's not Ray Bourque winning the Cup, but for me it's 36 hours that were pretty good. Now I'm looking forward to getting some sleep.''

The Bruins took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by center Joe Thornton at 3:50 of the second period. It was Thornton's third goal of the year, all on the man advantage.

Boston got into a little bit of penalty trouble, giving the Predators some life. In fact, during a Nashville power play, defenseman Don Sweeney saved a goal at the 19-minute mark, with Bill Guerin in the penalty box for for slashing. With Nashville pressing hard in the Boston zone, right wing Patric Kjellberg was in the crease, trying to jam the puck in. Byron Dafoe was on the edge of the crease near the right post, and Sweeney jumped into the crease as Kjellberg's shot went toward the net. From his knees, Sweeney stopped the puck from crossing the goal line.

At 4:12 of the third, left wing Denis Arkhipov tied it with a score at even strength and that set the stage for Knuble's heroics.

''When we were up, 1-0, I think we sat back a little bit and let them get that goal,'' said center Brian Rolston, who was in the No. 1 pivot between Guerin (nine shots on net) and Sergei Samsonov (four shots) for all but a span of the second, when the penalty-killing units altered the matchups. ''Obviously, Mike had a tremendous individual effort to score that goal for us. We're happy for him. It's definitely a relief to get a road win. It looked like it was going to go like all the other games there, but we pulled it out at the end. We have to start getting that killer instinct at the end of games.''

In the end, it had a Hollywood finish, with a memorable day for Knuble and the first victory away from home for the team.

''It's important we win our games on the road,'' said Ftorek. ''The guys played hard and they played well and it's a real good win for us. Now we go to Toronto and see what we can do up there.''

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 10/21/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.