Bruins-Flyers: Headed Back to Boston

Last night, the Boston Massacre was capped off with a crushing overtime goal by Simone Gagne that finally gave Flyer fans something to cheer about in this series.  The task still remains, Boston holds a 3-1 lead in the series and is playing at home Monday night.

After being out four games with a fractured bone in his foot, Gagne gave the Flyers a much needed lift that helped them in the extra period.

One lift Boston will not be getting is the return of David Krejci.  He has been lost for the playoffs after suffering a dislocated wrist.  This injury will certainly impact how the Bruins play offensively and is going to give more minutes to Marc Savard, who just came back from a Grade II concussion sustained in early March.

"It’s a huge loss for us,” said defenseman Dennis Wideman. “He’s a big part of our team up front. He’s a guy we like to get the puck to. If you get him the puck, it doesn’t have to be a real good pass. He’ll pick it up and make something happen. Any time you lose a guy like that it hurts.”

There were certainly times in last night's game that you could tell the presence of David Krejci was greatly missed.  Just like coach Claude Julien said, other players are going to be called upon to step up and contribute more.

Boston never gave up even after they fell down 3-1 in the second period.  They clawed back to tie it at three and then a Chris Pronger wrister looked like it would seal the deal on a 4-3 victory.  That was until 42-year-old Mark Recchi scored the game-tying goal with the extra attacker with 30 seconds left in regulation.

It seemed that this was the break the Bruins were looking for and going into overtime their intentions were to put one in the back of the net and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Brian Boucher said not so fast, as he played brilliant in the extra period.  He stopped all nine shots he faced and made a couple of tremendous saves in close.  He had 33 saves in Game Four and let's face it, unless Boucher plays flawless the rest of the way it's going to be hard to come back from this deficit.

It's only been done twice in hockey, the Maple Leafs did it during the 1942 Stanley Cup Finals and the Islanders did it in the 1975 quarterfinals.  History is on the Bruins' side, but this is a dangerous Flyers team that is much better with Simone Gagne on the ice.  He is a difference maker and that was evident with his overtime game-winner.

The Flyers have not won a playoff hockey game in Boston in 34 years.  The Bruins need to go back to Boston and take care of business in Game Five.  The longer they wait to close this Philadelphia team out the more momentum they will feel, and if this series goes seven games, well, then anybody could advance.

Tuukka Rask doesn't give up five goals very often in one game.  This is a game that he will forget about, and the Bruins will come out Monday night and get the job done at the TD Banknorth Garden.

Going back to Philadelphia for Game Six is just asking for problems, and something this injury-plagued Bruins team doesn't want to deal with.