Broad Street Bullies Win In OT Thriller. Still On Brink

In what proved to be a thriller of a game at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, The Flyers were in a Do or Die Situation and they Did and Lived.  For now.  The Philadelphia Flyers are still in an elimination situation as the Boston Bruins are still in a commanding 3-1 series lead in a best of 7.

Only 2 teams have ever come back from such a deficit on the NHL's long history.  the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs did this against the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final and the 1975 New York Islanders repeated the task in the Quarter Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  When you have an injury depleted team, this will be a mountain that will be brutal to conquer.

While Boston did have some injuries in Marco Sturm, David Krejci and Adam McQuaid, they did get some Defensive help back in Mark Stuart who is playing with an IV port to battle an infection in his finger.

The game wasn't overall chippy, but it was physical.

Boston opened up the scoring with a rebound from Bergeron's shot to Boucher to swept it straight out to Mark Recchi and the veteran 42-year old who is playing like a 22-year old puts it high above a sprawled out net minder.  Bruins up 1-0.

Just entering the final minute of play, Daniel Briere rips one from the point to tie it up and the period ends with a 1 all tie.

In the 2nd period, the Flyers came out strong.  In under 4 and a half minutes Chris Pronger let's one fly from the between the point and slot and it gets by Rask.  after that, Claude Giroux sneaks in to a crowded Bruins net and wrists it on.  Flyers up 3-1.

Boston gets back into the game with what is the strangest goal I have every seen.  Michael Ryder tried to make a slap shot from the slot and break his stick so the puck had no real power to it.  It bounces off the back board to Boucher's left right back towards the net.  Boucher tried to cover the left post but seems to come out too far off the post and the puck hits his inside left pad and redirects in.  An ugly goal, but Boston will take it.  Flyers up 3-2 going into the final frame.

Boston goes on the power play and 50 seconds into it, Wideman shoots from the point and Milan Lucic rdirect's it past Boucher's right shoulder.  Game is all knotted up at 3.

The Flyers comeback with Pronger shooting from the slot and it was oh so slightly tipped by Ville Leino to get it past Rask.  Flyers 4-3.

In the final minute, Rask is pulled and the Bruins are giving it their all to force this to OT.  The puck is shot down the ice to the empty net but it went wide right and it was iced with about 39 seconds left of the game.  A tired Flyers line had to stay out.

Richards won the face off but Bergeron recovers to pass to Wideman, Wideman passes to Bergeron then to Recchi who was to Boucher's left and he makes no mistake.  Game knotted at 4 with 32 seconds left of the game.  This game went to Extra Fun.

there were a lot of chances on both sides and both teams were somewhat tentative as it is sudden death and that would be literally for the Flyers' season.

With 5:20 left of the game, Philadelphia pulls a page from the Bruins' storybook and returning star Simone Gagne, who was left all alone in front of Rask, tips in a shot just under Rask's glove to give the Flyers their 1st win of the series.

My observation was that the Bruins were not matching the tempo that the Flyers were delivering and they were playing rather flat on the power play.  The Flyers gave it 110% in my opinion and was deserving of the win.  Boston didn't give up, but they could have been better.  Poor puck control on the B's end cost them a few times but I have to give credit to the Flyers, they had a hand in creating some plays to get this win.  Can they keep this tempo up?

The Bruins have proved they can play without David Krecji but it would have been nice all the same to have him in the lineup.  Line changes are never an easy thing to gel with in 1 game.

So the game will switch to the TDBankNorth Garden for a Game 5 in what will prove to be an electric Boston atmosphere and the Bruins hope to feed off this and figure out the Flyers to send them on their way to the golf course.  The Flyers have other plans and want to continue this ride back to Philadelphia for a Game 6 as now that the sweep is swept away, this will be a one-game-at-a-time for both teams.  The Flyers need to do this 3 more times, the Bruins, just once.

This is Cory Ducey saying "Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean"