Last Game: Colorado Avalanche 4 at Boston Bruins 2
BOSTON -- Ray Bourque's return to Boston got off to a rousing start and a victorious finish. In between, he and his Colorado Avalanche teammates struggled to stay ahead before beating the Bruins 4-2 Saturday for their fifth straight win.
The two-minute, pregame video tribute to Bourque had barely ended when Colorado scored as Joe Sakic tied a team record for fastest goal to start a game by connecting at nine seconds.
"It was a very nice day, and I had a lot of fun with it," said Bourque, who asked to be dealt in his 21st season with the Bruins to a title contender.
Bourque assisted on goals by Dan Hinote and Chris Drury to boost the lead to 3-0 at 4:01 as Colorado, which leads the NHL in points, showed why Bourque has a solid chance of winning his first Stanley Cup in 22 NHL seasons.
"It was special for us," Roy said. "I had goosebumps at the beginning and at the end of the game."
The improbability of that happening in Boston was the reason he asked the Bruins to trade him in his 21st season with them. They sent him to Colorado on March 7, 2000, and the Avalanche are 61-15-10-4 since then.
And Bourque, a five-time Norris Trophy winner as the NHL's top defenseman, was right about the Bruins, who are battling just to reach the playoffs.
The loss kept them four points behind Carolina in the race for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They have eight games left, while the Hurricanes had nine going into Saturday night's game against Buffalo. With 15 seconds left in the game, the fans chanted ``Ray, Ray, Ray.´´ Then he stopped a soft shot at his own blue line, the final buzzer sounded and he picked up the puck. He followed with one circuit of the rink, pumping his right hand high as his teammates banged their sticks on the ice and the fans cheered.
When Colorado jumped out to that early lead, it appeared headed for a blowout like its 8-2 victory over Boston in Denver on Feb. 21 in the teams' other meeting this season.
"That pretty much buried us," Boston goalie Byron Dafoe said. "That's the worst start we've had all year. I don't know why."
But the Bruins made it 3-2 on goals by Joe Thornton at 8:51 of the first period and Jason Allison at 7:47 of the second.
"There's two things to do, quit or keep going," Boston's Bill Guerin said, "and we're not going to have any quitters here."
The Avalanche, though, got a critical goal when Steven Reinprecht scored his 14th of the season at 8:40 of the third period from the corner of the crease after receiveing a cross-crease pass from Shjon Podein.
Sakic broke a tie with Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr for the NHL scoring lead with his goal. The three goals came on Colorado's first four shots, but the Bruins allowed just two shots in the next 23:39 - one in the final 15:59 of the first period and another in the first 7:40 of the second.
That defense sparked their offense as Thornton scored his 32nd goal on a pass across the slot from Sergei Samsonov. Then Allison got his 31st when he took a pass from Thornton in center ice and fired a 10-footer between goalie Patrick Roy's pads.
"They kept storming back," Bourque said. "We got off to a good start and then we kind of sat on (the lead) and we relied on our goalie to play a super game."
Reinprecht made it 4-2 after Shjon Podein went behind the net and swiped the puck across the crease where it went past Boston's Brian Rolston and onto Reinprecht's stick.
Boston had an excellent opportunity just before Allison's goal on a mistake by Bourque. He gave up the puck at the Bruins' blue line to Rolston, who broke in on Roy with Bourque trying to slow him down from behind.
"The goals energized us early," Drury said, but then "I thought the Bruins fed off the energy of the crowd."
Rolston beat Bourque to the net, but Roy made the save at 6:22.
"I knew he (Bourque) was behind me. I could have made a better fake," Rolston said. "If I score it's a different hockey game."
Game Notes: Notes: On the street outside the FleetCenter before the game, four fans stood on a corner wearing different Bourque No. 77 jerseys - the home and road sweaters from Colorado, a Bruins jersey and an All-Star game jersey. The Bruins' Bill Guerin, who played at Boston College, and the Avalanche's Drury, who played at Boston University, were named Saturday to the U.S. Olympic team. Colorado defenseman Rob Blake missed his second game with a sprained right knee. Roy returned after missing Thursday's win at St. Louis with tendinitis in his right knee. The Bruins had their eighth sellout crowd of the season at the Fleet Center. Boston failed to tally a power play goal after scoring at least one in their eight previous games. The Avalanche tied a franchise record with their 49th win of the season (Colorado had 49 wins in 1996-97) and established a new franchise-best mark for points with 111. Colorado is two road victories shy of tying a franchise-best 24 wins (set in 1992-93) on the road. The Avs are unbeaten in 34 of their last 43 games away from Pepsi Center (27-7-6-2) and unbeaten in regulation in 16 of their last 17 games (13-1-1-2). The Avalanche entered the game with 174 goals against, the lowest total 75 games into a season in franchise history (previous best was 178 in 1996-97). The team is on pace to allow 191 goals against this season - the franchise record for goal against in a season is 201, set in each of the last three previous seasons. Colorado is 62-15-9-1 over the last two seasons when netting the first goal of the game. Winger Shjon Podein is one point away from tying his career best (32 points). Joe Sakic's goal nine seconds into the game tied a franchise record, which was originally set 2/27/88 when Randy Moeller scored nine seconds into the game versus Detroit. Joe Sakic extended his point streak to nine games and has a team-best six-game goal steak this season.
First Period: Scoring: 1, Colorado, Sakic 46 (Tanguay), 0:09. 2, Colorado, Hinote 5 (Parker, Bourque), 2:57. 3, Colorado, Drury 22 (power play) (Sakic, Bourque), 4:01. 4, Boston, Thornton 32 (Samsonov, Knuble), 8:51. Penalties: Nazarov, Bos (roughing), 2:57; Drury, Col (holding), 5:03; Parker, Col (fighting major), 7:11; Nazarov, Bos (fighting major), 7:11; Nieminen, Col (holding the stick), 16:48.
Second Period: Scoring: 5, Boston, Allison 31 (Thornton, Dafoe), 7:47. Penalties: Thornton, Bos (elbowing), 5:25; McLaren, Bos (interference), 8:19; de Vries, Col (interference), 11:33; Bourque, Col (high sticking), 16:36.
