Bruins Top Flyers In Season Closer

April 19, 1998 / 9:53 PM EDT / CBS/AP

The Boston Bruins figured the best way not to meet the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the playoffs was to beat them on the last day of the regular season.

So they did, as Steve Heinze and Sergei Samsonov scored Sunday as the Bruins locked up fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a 2-1 victory over the Flyers.

The win set up an opening-round matchup against Washington.

Byron Dafoe, who has been a big part of Boston's turnaround under first-year coach Pat Burns, stopped 26 shots. He finished the season with six shutouts and a 2.24 goals-against average in 65 games.

"It's a situation we wanted to get," said Dafoe of the Bruins' upcoming series against the Capitals, who captured fourth place Sunday.

"We'd rather play Washington than play Philadelphia. We think Philadelphia can be a tough, physical team over seven games."

Entering the day, Boston had hopes for fourth place and home-ice against either Washington or Buffalo. However, after the Capitals defeated Carolina 2-1 and secured fourth, the Bruins needed a win to avoid playing the Flyers.

"I think this was a test for us. If we had lost, we might have seen them in the playoffs Wednesday," Boston defenseman Kyle McLaren said. "Philadelphia's a big team. We wanted to put it in our own hands. We didn't want to be in a situation where we wanted Buffalo to lose. We wanted to do it ourselves."

In the opening period, the Flyers appeared intent on playing physical hockey, attempting to outhit their smaller foes rather than concentrating on their own scoring chances. The Bruins outshot Phildelphia 15-3 in the opening 20 minutes of hard-hitting, physical play.

"It was a close-checking game and they played a little smarter than we did, really," Flyers coach Roger Neilson said. "We took some penalties we didn't have to take, and we made some decisions with the puck that weren't the right ones."

Now, the Bruins, last-season's NHL doormat in the standings, will travel to Washington for Games 1 and 2 Wednesday and Friday, respectively.

Last year, the Bruins had a league-low 61 points and missed the playoffs, snapping a streak of 29 consecutive seasons of postseason play.

Chris Gratton scored a third-period power-play goal for Philadelphia.

The Flyers, last season's Stanley Cup runnerups, ended in third place and will host Buffalo in Games 1 and 2 later this week.

Heinze scored a power-play goal at 17:36 of the first, taking a feed from Jason Allison at the top of the crease and slipping a shot past Sean Burke inside the left post.

Samsonov's goal, his 22nd, made it 2-0 just 1:47 into the third. Gratton beat Dafoe with a slap shot between the pads from the left circle at 8:38.

Burke made 37 saves.

"It'very gratifying," said Burns of his team's quick rebound this year. "I've had some great memories in the league and this is one of them. I hope it's not over."