The Defenseless West Side

Nobody knows what happenned, but the West end of the ice was like the Bermuda Triangle of Defense in the Bruins hosting of the Oilers.

Each time the teams switched sides, the team attacking the west goal went wild... while the other guys fell silent. Shot differentials were near even, but the period splits were Edmonton-Boston 7-10, 13-4, 2-13. Those in the horseshoe had a good time; those on the far end saw squat.

The Oilers actually did the east-siders the first show, as Jason Allison scored at 08:00 on a 4-on-3 powerplay after the Bob- Boughner-Richard Jackman 07:27 fight and a Lee Goren 07:55 roughing misconduct. It was Jackman's second fight of the game - really, at only seven minutes in - after fighting Keith Primeau to a draw, before being ruled the loser to Boughner and falling to simultaneous injury and ejection.

The Jackman penalties led to one of the more interesting lines of the year - 0-0-0, 20 PIM, 0 minutes ice time.

Peter Sykora led the Bruins' offense back to the far end at 12:50 when, fed by Sean Brown and Jochan Hecht, he scored his twelfth goal of the year on Nikolai Khabibulin. Pierre Turgeon joined the Red Light Brigade less than two minutes later on a Matt Hartigan and Fran Kaberle assisted goal, his fourth.

After Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre was penalized for an illegal crosscheck, Bill Guerin matched Allison in scoring his twenty-fifth goal of the year on the power play at 14:59 to put the Bruins up 3-1.

With the first period horn, the goals sealed shut. Despite another thirty-two shots on goal, Khabibulin and Raycroft stood on their heads, hands, and dicks, stopping everything that approached them in the next two periods. A smattering of penalties - almost split between the two teams - were all the excitement the fans would get for their $45.

Andrew Raycroft improved to 25-16-3 on the year as he stopped twenty-one of twenty-two shots on goal and claimed the top game star. Bill Guerin and Peter Sykora joined him in the Molson Celebration as the Bruins regrouped themselves to host the Senators two nights later.