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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- At last, the Boston Bruins were rewarded for their work with a win.
Rookie goaltender John Grahame stopped 31 shots and the Bruins snapped a season-opening nine-game winless streak by beating the
San Jose Sharks 3-1 Saturday night.
|  | | Kyle McLaren and the Bruins finally celebrated a win Saturday after getting off to their worst start in decades. |
"We hadn't been playing any worse or any better than we have in
our last four games," Boston coach Pat Burns said. "The
difference tonight is that we found a way to get the puck past the
goalkeeper.
"It's really nice to get that first one," added Burns. "We
needed to click on all channels and we did. We had great power
plays and our goalie picked us up."
Anson Carter, Darren Van Impe and Kyle McLaren each scored power-play goals in support of Grahame, who earned his first career win against the NHL's highest-scoring team.
"This really means something and it's something you'll remember your whole life," said Grahame, who got his initial victory in his sixth start. "You really can't build on something until you get
that first win. That gets your confidence going. But I knew we would do it. Once we got that cushion, we didn't sit back and wait for them to take it back."
Boston was 0-5-4 in its first nine games, matching the team
record for longest winless streak to start a season. The Bruins
started the 1964-65 season 0-8-1.
"It's nice to get rid of that goose egg," Carter said.
The loss was the second in a row since a four-game winning
streak for the Sharks (7-4).
"We had a lot of chances early, but we fell behind, and in this
league it's tough to come back," Sharks defenseman Gary Suter
said. "Real good teams have a killer instinct every night. We
didn't tonight. They were the more desperate team and it showed. We
just didn't play well. They outworked us, especially in the first
period."
San Jose's Owen Nolan, whose 17 points lead the league, saw his
10-game point-scoring streak snapped. His best scoring chance came
on a breakaway with 1:45 remaining, but Grahame turned it away with
a stick save.
With less than a minute to go, after the Sharks pulled their
goaltender for an extra attacker, Grahame frustrated a San Jose
rush by blocking Marco Sturm's short shot.
Sharks goaltender Steve Shields, whose six wins top the league,
allowed two goals on 14 first-period shots and was pulled in favor
of Mike Vernon, who allowed one goal the rest of the way.
Boston, just 4-for-38 on the power play entering the game,
converted its first two opportunities against the Sharks and was
3-for-5 on the night.
Van Impe got his first goal of the season at 12:36 of the first,
slapping a shot from inside the left faceoff circle past Shields
into the upper left corner of the net.
There was less than a second left in the period when McLaren
made it 2-0 with his first goal of the year. Sergei Samsonov passed
the puck out to McLaren at the point and he got off a shot that
rocketed into the net before Shields could get his glove up to
catch it.
With 16:53 remaining, Carter took a cross-ice pass from Jason Allison and shot the puck past the off-balance Vernon.
The Sharks avoided the shutout on Patrick Marleau's power-play score with 7:37 remaining.
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NHL Scoreboard
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Colorado 3
Atlanta 2
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Ottawa 4
Buffalo 0
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Anson Carter scores for Boston.
avi: 688 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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