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RANGERS 3, BRUINS 1 Berth day is on hold for Bruins [ Game summary ] By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, Globe Staff, 3/30/2003
The Rangers went in knowing they have to win virtually every game just to stay alive for a postseason berth. Desperation won out, as New York turned in an inspired performance on the way to a 3-1 triumph at the FleetCenter. Last season, the Bruins clinched a postseason berth March 24, in Game No. 73, when they beat Tampa Bay in overtime. Tomorrow night, in Game No. 79, they'll see the Lightning again and will need 2 points to get them over the top, unless the Rangers lose to Atlanta. There are still times when it's tough to tell which Bruin team is going to show up. Yesterday, they were pretty decent, but the Rangers, chock-full of underachieving talent, were terrific, particularly Alexei Kovalev (two goals) and goalie Mike Dunham (31 saves). ''I don't think we had the legs we had against Philadelphia [Thursday] but you've got to give the opposition credit,'' said Bruins general manager/coach Mike O'Connell. ''They played hard and made the most of their chances. That's the way it went. ''We didn't work as hard as we did the last couple of games. There were stretches that we did and stretches that we didn't. If anything, we have to get a more consistent effort on that. To make sure that everyone knows that when they're going on the ice that there's going to be a consistent effort and hopefully have enough structure that when you don't have that you'll get through those tough spells when the other team has a surge or when you're not working like you should.'' Kovalev scored New York's first two goals, one each in the first and second periods. He took a pass from Matthew Barnaby and buried the puck from the crease for the 1-0 lead at 19:00 of the opening session. His second came at 10:26 of the middle period to make it 2-0. Petr Nedved made a spin-o-rama move at the left point and dished a pass to Barnaby at the top of the slot. Barnaby relayed it to Kovalev, who was deep in the right circle, and he fired it past goalie Steve Shields for his 35th of the year. The Bruins' only score came at 11:37 of the second when Joe Thornton finished off a two-on-one with Glen Murray, scoring on a top shelf forehander from deep in the left circle that gave him 35 goals for the season. New York's Brian Leetch closed it out with a power-play goal at 2:28 of the third. Brian Rolston said Dunham's netminding and the Rangers' ability to limit Boston offensively made the difference. ''I thought they did pretty good things against us,'' said Rolston, who had a game-high six shots on net. ''I didn't think we had great opportunities. The first save, he's going to make it the majority of the time. I've played a lot with Mike [in New Jersey] and he's a good goalie over there.'' Though the Bruins were disappointed not to clinch, the knowledge that they control their destiny took some of the sting out of it. They tipped their caps to the Rangers, who after a pretty miserable season still have a pulse. ''Every game now seems to be tough, especially against the Rangers,'' said defenseman Bryan Berard. ''You've got to give them credit. They played pretty well. They're hanging in there. We wanted to bury them today. Overall it was a pretty good effort. ''Today was a big game. We wanted this one bad. I think we got away from our game plan a little bit. We didn't get pucks deep as much as we wanted, especially against these guys. They've got some offensive guys and they made some nice plays.'' It doesn't get any easier from here. The next three games are against the top three seeds in the conference (Tampa Bay, Ottawa, and New Jersey). ''We have some good teams coming up, there's no question,'' said Rolston. ''But we feel confident in the way we're playing.''
This story ran on page E9 of the Boston Globe on 3/30/2003.
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he Bruins went into yesterday knowing they had an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot by earning a victory or a tie against the Rangers.