2010 NHL Playoffs: Philadelphia Flyers Make History in Game 7

The Flyers look to complete a historic comeback Friday night in Boston after Michael Leighton made 30 saves in his first career post-season start, lifting the Orange and Black to a 2-1 win in Game 6.
 
Goals by Mike Richards and Danny Briere were all Leighton needed to send the series back to Massachusetts for Game 7.
 
Leighton Stands Tall

Leighton has stopped 44 of the 45 shots he's faced as the third Flyers goalie to appear in this series.
 
The 28-year-old was pressed into service in the second period of Game 5 for his first action since being hurt March 16 in Nashville, subsequently missing the past 21 games. It was also his NHL playoff debut.
 
The Petrolia, Ontario native stopped all 14 shots he faced to keep the Flyers alive.
 
The combined shutout by Leighton and Boucher was only the second in the history of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. On March 22, 1955, Montreal's Jacques Plante and Charlie Hodge blanked Boston, 2-0.

One more note on Leighton: His birthday just happens to be May 19, the same day the Flyers beat the Bruins for their first Stanley Cup in 1974.
 
Richards & Briere Flying High

The two Flyers goal scorers Wednesday should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched this series.
 
Both Mike Richards (3-5-8) and Danny Briere (4-4-8) have a point in five of the six games against Boston.  
 
Briere has a goal in six of his last eight games, and Richards has at least a point in nine of the Flyers' 11 playoff games this spring.
 
At least one of the two has had a point in 14 of the Flyers' 18 goals in this series.
 
Disappearing act by Satan

Miro Satan was on a roll playing with David Krejci. Satan had a six-game playoff point streak going when he scored on a breakaway in Game 3 just moments after Richards knocked Krejci out of the playoffs with a dislocated wrist.
 
At that point, Satan had three goals and two assists against the Flyers in the series and Game 3 wasn't even six minutes old.
 
Since then, Miro has been held without a point and to only seven shots on goal. 
 
Penalty Shot
 
Ville Leino was awarded a penalty shot with just over seven minutes left in the third period and the Flyers up 2-0.
 
Leino made a nice move, but Rask stayed with him and made an impressive glove save.
 
What's even more interesting is that both Leino and Rask were born in Savonlinna, Finland and are long time buddies.
 
This was the Flyers first post-season penalty shot since Mike Richards scored against Cristobal Huet and Washington in 2008.
 
Booosh

Injured goalie Brian Boucher is likely out for the remainder of the post-season but was honored with a standing ovation from the Wachovia Center crowd during Game 6.

Boucher's 2.33 goals against average leads the league during these playoffs and his .915 save % ranks fifth.
 
CSN vs NESN
 
Watching Game 6 outside of the Philadelphia market, I was subjected to the Bruins telecast on NESN. While this would normally be a bad thing, there were a few advantages.
 
First, the NESN telecast showed the Lauren Hart/Kate Smith rendition of God Bless America while CSN didn't. No matter how many times the Flyers call on Kate, it always brings me chills and even tears to hear her - and Wednesday night was no exception.
 
Once Versus picked up the Flyers broadcast in the third period, I switched over. When the Bruins called timeout with 1:59 left, CSN went to commercial so I switched back to NESN and they were still on the air.
 
The same exact thing happened after the Bruins scored with 1:00 left and the Flyers used their timeout.
 
Game 6 Notes

- Philadelphia blocked 30 shots in the game, including six by Matt Carle. 11 of the 18 Flyer skaters had at least one block.

- Kimmo Timonen played a game-high 28:21 and was +1 with two shots and four blocked shots.

- After only two of Boston's 23 shots came from defensemen in Game 5. The B's blueline chipped in 15 of the Bruins 31 shots in Game 6.

- Milan Lucic's goal with a minute remaining broke a string of seven straight goals in the series by the Flyers, and denied the Flyers their first back-to-back playoff shutouts since Games 2 & 3 of the 1975 Quarterfinals against Toronto when Bernie Parent pulled off the feat. 
 
- The Flyers were dominated in the faceoff circle again, winning only 25 of 64 draws (39%) Wednesday. No Philadelphia player was over 50 percent while Trent Whitfield (8/11), Vladimir Sobotka (7/10) and Marc Savard (8/12) combined to win 23 of 33 draws.

- What was Flourtown, Penn. native Mike Richter doing in Ed Snider's box during Game 6?
 
Losing is Contagious

Wednesday night the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones completed a comeback from a 3-0 series deficit against the Reading Royals.

The Royals became just the sixth professional hockey team to lose a series after leading 3-0. Two NHL teams, two AHL teams, an IHL team, and now the ECHL Royals have done it.

Oh yeah, Reading is an affiliate of the Boston Bruins...
 
Some Game 7 nuggets from NHL.com:

The Flyers are the 162nd team in NHL playoff history to trail 3-0 in a best-of-seven series. With their win versus Boston on Wednesday, they are just the sixth team to extend the series to seven games:

When a team leads, 3-0, in a playoff series:
Series result:	Times occurred
Win, 4-0	103
Win, 4-1	45
Win, 4-2	8
Win, 4-3	3
Lose, 4-3	2

Career Game 7 Statistics
			Game 7 record: 9-9					Game 7 record: 7-6
Skaters:	GP	G	A	P		GP	G	A	P
Mark Recchi	7	2	3	5	Chris Pronger	6	0	2	2
Andrew Ference	5	1	0	1	Simon Gagne	3	1	0	1
Zdeno Chara	4	0	1	1	Ian Laperriere	3	0	1	1
Dennis Seidenberg	3	0	3	3	Daniel Briere	2	0	1	1
Miroslav Satan	3	0	2	2	Kimmo Timonen	1	0	2	2
Goalies:	GP	W-L	GAA	SV%		GP	W-L	GAA	SV%
Tim Thomas	2	0-2	3.46	.889	Brian Boucher	1	0-1	2.04	.889
Coaches:	W		L			W		L
Claude Julien	1		2		Peter Laviolette	2		1

- The Flyers are 7-6 all-time in Game 7s. Philadelphia has won two of their last three Game 7s on the road.

- Home teams are 0-3 in Game 7s during the 2010 Playoffs.