Murray nets two as Bruins beat Canucks
Canadian Press
10/17/2002
VANCOUVER (CP) - The Boston Bruins are discovering that the longest season-opening road trip in club history isn't so bad after all.
``It's good and bad,'' said right-winger Glen Murray, who scored two goals and assisted on another to key a 6-3 victory Wednesday night over the Vancouver Canucks.
``It's good we're getting away at the first of the season, getting these games on the road and getting together as a team....Obviously these games are big for us right now.''
The Bruins are on the road for six games and play the Flames in Calgary on Thursday night.
``Everyone puts a little pressure on themselves when they play at home so I think we're kind of happy to be on the road right now,'' said Murray, who tied the game 1-1 in the first period off a breakaway, assisted on Sergei Samsonov's go-ahead goal late in the second and then made it 5-3 in the third by banking the puck in off goalie Dan Cloutier from behind the net.
The win was the second in a row for the Bruins, who stumbled out of the gate with a 5-1 loss at Minnesota but rebounded Monday night with a last-second 2-1 victory at Colorado.
Vancouver (2-2-0) lost its second straight home game and Murray suggested the Canucks might be trying to do too much after ending last season with eight wins and a tie to squeak into the playoffs.
``It's just natural,'' Murray said. ``You say you don't do it, but you want to make the home fans happy.
``You shouldn't have those thoughts but you should just go out and play the same way you do anywhere.''
Samsonov scored the winner for the second night in a row and added two assists.
P.J. Axelsson, with an unassisted short-handed goal, Marty McInnis and Joe Thornton, into an empty net, also scored for the Bruins.
Harold Druken, Todd Bertuzzi and Daniel Sedin gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead.
Bertuzzi and Sedin scored on two of the first four shots relief netminder Steve Shields faced at the beginning of the second period. Starter John Grahame, who left with an injured right shoulder, had his arm in a sling after the game.
But Shields, obtained in the off-season from Anaheim for a draft pick, was steady following Sedin's goal, stopping the next 10 shots.
``We've played a couple of good games since the first game,'' said Shields. ``These aren't the type of players who sit back.
``They want to be productive. They want to score and at the same time be accountable defensively.''
Murray said the Bruins, the top seed in the Eastern Conference before losing in the first round of last season's playoffs to Montreal, are playing with confidence.
``Last year, we had bad habits of sitting back in the third period and letting teams come at us but we talked before we went out and said let's go at them and not sit back and give them chances,'' Murray said.
Veteran Vancouver winger Trent Klatt said little things are leading to defensive zone turnovers and blown coverages.
``Quite frankly, we're not doing what we're told to do out there,'' he said. ``We're turning the puck over. We're not backchecking hard. We're losing coverage in our own zone.
``We're not getting a lot of shots on net and we're not really getting a potent forecheck going. There's a lot of big staples this team has to do on a nightly basis to be successful and right now we're not doing them.''
Notes: Bruins winger Rob Zamuner left the club in Denver to return to Boston where his wife, Ann, gave birth to the couple's second son....Left-winger Jan Hlavac returned to the Vancouver lineup after missing two games with an inflamed knee....Forward Trevor Linden was back on the ice on for the first time Tuesday after suffering a knee injury in Vancouver's first game of the season.
Cheers,
Aquaman