Duhhhh-nuhh... duhhhh-nuhhhh...

Almost 18,000 fans filed in to the Fleet Center as the upstart Boston Bruins welcomed the San Jose Sharks to their own tank. Earlier in the year, the Bruins had defeated the Sharks as part of their multi-city, multi-coast, Roadtrip From Hell (R). But now, the Bruins were hosting the Sharks in their own arena.

The results were terrible. San Jose jumped out to an early lead as Mike York scored at 01:01 for his twentieth goal of the season on assists from Aaron Ward and John Madden. After a Tomas Kopecky penalty gave the Sharks a two minute power play they frittered away, Ladislav Nagy scored in a five-on-five situation at 07:44.

The Bruins attempted to regroup before play continued, and the defensive efforts stood up for the remainder of the period. The offense made a stand as Martin Havlat beat JS Giguere at 15:27 of the first off a Keith Tkachuk pass, setting it up so the Bruins would go to the lockerroom only one goal down.

Backup goaltender John Grahame, whose wife says he usually gets up to speed quickly - we're not sure what that means - once again had problems at the beginning of the period. Ladislav Nagy increased the lead back to two goals as he beat Grahame like a red headed stepchild at 01:11. The Bruins team leader in goals, Bill Guerin, was called for boarding five minutes later, but once again, the Bruins defense stood up for itself and killed the powerplay.

Tomas Kopecky drew the Bruins back within one goal at 11:08 off a beautiful cross-ice Peter Sykora assist. Giguere was left sprawled in the circle in amazement as the puck slipped past him.

The joy would be shortlived, though, as at 17:29 Lars Jonnson was whistled for a completely bullshit elbowing penalty. The Sharks finally capitalized on the power play, as Marian Hossa scored off a Radek Bonk bullet pass at 17:51, ruining the Bruins' good run going. Grahame and the Bruins left the ice for intermission dejected.

Their spirits would soar, though, when Lars Jonnson redeemed himself with a Tim Connolly-assisted goal at 01:59 of the third. Once again, Giguere didn't know what the soaring black thing was, but he saw the red light spinning and was dumbfounded.

That would be the end, though, of the tale of the Bruins as they attempted to drown the Sharks. Sean Brown was called for a charging misconduct before the end of the period, and most difficultly, Peter Sykora was lost to a John Madden-inflicted injury. Ironically, it was not athlete's foot.

Despite a valiant effort, the Bruins fell short, 4-3, with John Grahame being saddled with the loss to drop to 4-7-0 on the season.