The Broad Street Blog

The Philadelphia Flyers have owned the Atlanta Thrashers, all the way back to Atlanta’s inception. Going into tonight’s game, the Flyers had 24 wins in 30 games. Another thing the Flyers had going for them was that Antero Nittymaki had beaten the Thrashers every time he’s faced them.

After the last four games, the operative words have been urgency and effort. In the first minute of the game, the Flyers gave up a goal, and everyone watching the game started thinking, here we go again. Being only a point ahead of Buffalo for 8th place, a win in this game was critical.

Mike Richards scored 7 minutes into the first period and that goal got the Flyers going as they began to take over the game. Jeff Carter scored with 3 seconds left in the second period and Vaclav Prospal added a goal in the third period to give the Flyers a 2 goal lead.

The Thrashers pulled goaltender Kari Lehtonen in the final minute of third period and were able to score with 30 seconds left to pull within a goal. The Thrashers went right back on the attack and with 5 seconds left in the game Nittymaki made a save on Ilya Kovalchuck that saved the season.

If the Flyers lost this game, it would have done some serious damage to their ability to stay in the playoff hunt.

Tags:   Carter · Flyers · Prospal · Richards · ThrashersNo Comments