Hey Philly, What Happened to Playing 60 Minutes? Washington Wins 3-2

The Philadelphia Flyers failed to show up for the first forty minutes today in their match-up against the Washington Capitals.

For most if not all Flyers fans, this was a frustrating game to watch because all the Flyers needed to do was win 60 minutes to finish off the series in Washington D.C..They played a solid 20. 

Philadelphia could only get four shots on Cristobal Huet in the first period, and then the Flyers were held to only seven shots in the second. 

Not only was Philadelphia out shot, but the renowned physical play of the Flyers was challenged by the young Capitals.

The Capitals out-hit Philadelphia 22-9 in just one period of play. 

The third period was all Philadelphia as they turned the tables and out-shot Washington 21-6. 

Of course, the only problem for the Flyers was their penalty troubles.

They had to kill off three consecutive power-plays in the third period. 

Scottie Upshall took three penalties himself, all including, tripping, slashing and goaltender interference. 

That alone will kill any teams momentum and Alex Semin scored a great power-play goal for Washington through heavy traffic in front of Martin Biron to push the Capitals to a two-goal lead. 

With just over four minutes left in the game, the Flyers continued to make up for their lack of effort in the previous two periods as Derian Hatcher scored a big goal to cut the lead to one. 

The Capitals held their breath for a moment as Danny Briere failed to get his one-timer through traffic with only a few seconds remaining in the third.

With that final effort, the Capitals exhaled and celebrated a fine victory.    

Although Briere missed his chance to tie the game, his play-off performance has been brilliant so far as he leads the play-offs with nine points; five of them being goals. 

The Flyers were able to stop Alex Ovechkin from scoring again for four straight games, partly due to the strong defence played by Kimmo Timonen.  

Ovechkin, the 65 goal leader, has scored only once the entire series, but has done a nice job with helping his line mates score. 

The Capitals will play game six on Monday night in Philadelphia. 

Another must win for the Capitals or they will see themselves teeing up at the links. 

According to the Flyers Website, Philadelphia is 16-2 when leading a playoff series three games to two.