Bruins win again, but only a handful see it

<br>NEW YORK (AP) _ The Boston Bruins are tired of being the best kept secret in Beantown. <br><br>The top team in the NHL's Eastern Conference won at home again, and again the Bruins did it in front

Friday, November 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ The Boston Bruins are tired of being the best kept secret in Beantown.

The top team in the NHL's Eastern Conference won at home again, and again the Bruins did it in front of a sparse crowd.

Boston beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 on Thursday night for its sixth win in eight games this season, but the Bruins only drew 10,667 fans _ the second smallest crowd in the 7-year-old FleetCenter.

That was only slightly better than the arena's worst attended Bruins game on Oct. 31 when Boston sustained its only home loss of the season with 9,491 in the stands.

Part of the problem might be that fans didn't expect the Bruins to have 28 points (12-3-3-1) this quickly _ especially after they didn't bring back top forward Bill Guerin and goalie Byron Dafoe.

``Who knows?'' center Joe Thornton said. ``We're doing all we can do. We're winning games. To me, I'd go pay watch these guys play. It's fun.''

Elsewhere in the NHL, it was Ottawa 3, Montreal 2; Minnesota 4, Washington 3; the New York Islanders 7, Tampa Bay 2; San Jose 2, Philadelphia 2; the New York Rangers 4, New Jersey 4; St. Louis 3, Los Angeles 2 in overtime; Nashville 1, Colorado 1; and Edmonton 3, Calgary 1.

Glen Murray scored his 200th and 201st career goals, and Brian Rolston added a short-handed tally for Boston. John Grahame made 23 saves for the Bruins, who had a five-game unbeaten streak snapped at Toronto on Tuesday but won for the sixth time in nine games (6-1-1-1).

``I know that we've been playing hard and we're playing well,'' Boston coach Robbie Ftorek said. ``I think management has brought in some quality players and we've got a nice team.''

Carolina took a 1-0 lead midway into the first period when Kevyn Adams fired in a shot from his knees. But the Hurricanes, last season's Eastern Conference champions, went 0-for-5 on the power play _ including a two-man advantage for 1:24 in the second period.

``The power play can make or break teams,'' center Jeff O'Neill said. ``Right now it's not winning games for us.''

Blues 3, Kings 2, OT

At St. Louis, Alexander Khavanov scored at 1:02 of overtime for the Blues.

Khavanov beat Felix Potvin from about 20 feet. Doug Weight had scored for St. Louis with 39 seconds left in regulation to tie it.

Jaroslav Modry's goal at 15:45 gave the Kings a 2-1 lead.

Devils 4, Rangers 4

At East Rutherford, New Jersey, Mark Messier scored with 3:35 left in regulation to give New York the tie.

Tom Poti, Petr Nedved and Radek Dvorak also scored for the Rangers, who took advantage of a rare bad game by New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur. New York only took 27 shots, including all five in overtime.

Sergei Brylin, Jeff Friesen, Patrik Elias and Brian Gionta scored for the Devils.

Flyers 2, Sharks 2

At Philadelphia, Jeremy Roenick's power-play goal with 7:29 left in regulation gave the Flyers their fourth tie in five games.

Teemu Selanne and Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks, unbeaten in three games. The Flyers are unbeaten in five (1-0-4).

Before Roenick's goal, Philadelphia hadn't scored in 32 power-play opportunities, including its first four against the Sharks.

Islanders 7, Lightning 2

At Tampa, Florida, Jason Blake had two goals and two assists, and Jason Wiemer added a goal and three assists for New York, which also got two goals from Mark Parrish.

Garth Snow made 29 saves for New York. He got the start although Chris Osgood is 13-0 against Tampa Bay. Snow received a 5-minute match penalty for an attempt to injury with his goalie gear during a scrum with 2:45 left to play and was ejected.

Wild 4, Capitals 3

At Washington, Pascal Dupuis had a goal and two assists for Minnesota.

Dupuis scored the only goal Saturday night in Minnesota's 1-0 home victory over the Capitals. His third-period goal this time gave the Wild a 4-2 lead.

The Capitals, 0-for-3 on the power play, are in a 9-for-78 slump with the man-advantage. The Wild have killed 21 straight penalties.

Senators 3, Canadiens 2

At Ottawa, Chris Phillips scored his first goal of the season late in the second period to lift the Senators.

Phillips, a defenseman held to two assists through 16 games, scored 18:33 into the second to break a 2-2 tie. He had gone 21 regular-season games without a goal, dating to last season.

Montreal's Jeff Hackett made 34 saves, including a great pad stop on Marian Hossa with just over 8 minutes left.

Predators 1, Avalanche 1

At Denver, Andreas Johansson scored 14 seconds into the third period, and Nashville and Colorado tied.

Rob Blake had a first-period goal for the Avalanche, 1-4-4-1 at home.

Nashville goalie Tomas Vokoun withstood Colorado's 9-3 edge in shots in overtime, finishing with 31 saves. Colorado's Patrick Roy had 29 saves.

Oilers 3, Flames 1

At Calgary, Alberta, Todd Marchant scored twice and set up Shawn Horcoff's tiebreaking goal as Edmonton stretched Calgary's losing streak to seven games.

Calgary defenseman Petr Buzek scored his first of the season and just his second in 52 career games with the Flames.