Bruins Get First Win of Season; Islanders, Rangers Remain Winless

BOSTON--Boston Bruins coach Pat Burns was upset even though his goal-tender played a brilliant game. New York Islanders coach Mike Milbury was upbeat even though his team remained winless with a 3-0 loss yesterday.

That's because New York had out-played, outshot and outhustled Boston but, for the second straight game, was victimized by a brief lapse.

"We were much better," Milbury said. "We clearly outplayed them for most of this game."

The difference was Bruins goalie Byron Dafoe, who made 28 saves, including three difficult ones in the last five minutes.

"Other individuals on this club are going to have to realize that we can't depend on him every night," Burns said. "We were outworked. There seems to be a lack of urgency in certain things we do."

The Bruins were good enough in a two-minute stretch of the first period to take advantage of Islanders' breakdowns and get goals from Dmitri Khristich at 14:00 and Steve Heinze at 15:18. P.J.

Axelsson finished the scoring with 6:35 left in the game.

"The way the game is being played these days," Heinze said, "the lead is a big thing because everybody's so tough defensively, so getting an early lead really helps."

On Saturday, the Islanders allowed three goals in a 72-second stretch of the first period and lost their season opener to the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3. Milbury is not ready to call it a trend.

"It's early yet," he said. "If we keep doing it, I'll probably commit suicide."

Dafoe, who had a career-high six shutouts last season, started the 1998-99 season with a strong game in Saturday night's 3-3 tie against the St. Louis Blues. Yesterday, nothing got by him while three of Boston's 17 shots passed New York goalie Tommy Salo.

"I definitely had to work for it," Dafoe said. "Some shutouts I had last year I was just going through the motions."

With about five minutes left, he stopped Jason Dawe's point-blank shot from the slot with his left glove, then smothered Sergei Nemchinov's rebound attempt on which, Dafoe said, "I just threw my glove out. He had the whole net. If he goes upstairs, It's in."

With 2:20 remaining, he poked the puck away from Mike Watt on a breakaway.

"We had a pretty good game," New York's Mariusz Czerkawski said. "But we have to be hungry."

Dafoe, obtained from the Los Angeles Kings in August 1997, had an outstanding first season with the Bruins with a career-high 65 games and a career-low 2.24 goals against average.

Khristich, Boston's second leading scorer last season, gave the Bruins the lead when he slid a 5-foot wrist shot by Salo after taking a pass from behind the net from Jason Allison.

"I couldn't see the net," Khristich said, "but I had an idea where it was."

Heinze scored his second goal of the season 1:18 later on a rebound. Ted Donato, who missed Boston's first seven exhibition games during a contract hold-out, tipped Grant Ledyard's shot. Salo stopped the deflection, but the puck went to Heinze, who put a 10-footer past the goalie from the left side of the net.

Canucks 4, Kings 2

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--The NHL reduced the size of the goal crease in an attempt to stimulate scoring, but that didn't satisfy Los Angeles Kings coach Larry Robinson, whose team had two goals disallowed.

"All you ask is to get a fair shake and I don't think we got a fair shake tonight," said Robinson, whose Kings lost 4-2 to Vancouver in the Canucks' season-opener yesterday.

Robinson was especially upset after referee Stephen Walkom waived off Rob Blake's goal which would have tied the game 3-3 with 2:31 left in the third period. While the Kings' Sandy Moger had his foot in the crease, a replay showed that he was clearly pushed in by Canucks defenseman Murray Baron.

"Apparently, you're the only ones that saw it," said Robinson to a group of reporters. "You look up at the Jumbotron [video scoreboard] and there it is right in front of your eyes. Blake didn't even shoot the puck, yet and the guy knocked [Moger] into the crease. It's too bad."

Although he said he was going to bite his tongue, Robinson added Walkom "had a bad night" and called this a good example of the need to have two referees on the ice for all games.

"That's why I like the two-referee system because you have four eyes watching, you don't have those types of calls."

Peter Zezel led the Canucks with two goals, including the game-winner 10:48 into the third period, and set up another as the Canucks erased 1-0 and 2-1 deficits.

Zezel's go-ahead goal came on the power play after the Canucks had squandered their first seven opportunities. Set up at the bottom of the right circle by Brad May, Zezel rifled a rising shot that beat Kings goaltender Jamie Storr on the short side. Earlier, Zezel had tied the game 1-1 when he deflected Todd Bertuzzi's point shot with 5:12 left in the second period.

"It was nice. The [second] one was just a reaction. There was room, but there wasn't much room and I just thought that if I got it on net, I'd have the chance," Zezel said.

Blues 4, Rangers 2

NEW YORK--Defenseman Al MacInnis scored three straight goals to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 4-2 victory over the struggling New York Rangers last night.

The Rangers are off to an 0-3-0 start and have been outscored 12-3 in those games.

MacInnis scored the natural hat trick during a 12-minute span in the first period. With St. Louis on a power play, MacInnis scored at 4:56 on a slap shot from the right point that beat Rangers goaltender Mike Richter cleanly. At 11:49 MacInnis scored on a shot from outside the blue line that bounced off Richter's right pad and trickled into the net. Then at 16:48 MacInnis beat Richter with a slap shot from the left point after Pierre Turgeon won a faceoff in the Rangers' end.

St. Louis padded the lead to 4-0 with a goal from Geoff Courtnall at 9:05 of the second period off Dan Cloutier, who replaced Richter at the start of the second period.

New York made it 4-1 at 3:48 of the third period when Wayne Gretzky won a faceoff in the Blues' zone and sent the puck back to Brian Leetch at the left point. Leetch beat Blues goaltender Grant Fuhr with a slap shot for his first goal of the season. Alexander Karpovtsev made it 4-2 when he beat Fuhr from the right point at 11:34.

Ranger fans, with little to cheer about, responded wildly when informed that New York Yankees pitcher David Wells was in the arena. "Let's Go Yankees" was the loudest cheer of the night at Madison Square Garden.