The Broad Street Blog

Game 1 of the first round matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals had everything that everyone was expecting. There were lots of goals, plenty of hits, and the emotions were running high.

The Capitals jumped out to an early lead thanks to former Flyers enforcer Donald Brashear. The Flyers responded with a goal by Vaclav Prospal.

The second period is where the Flyers took over. After a goal by Washington’s David Steckel, the Flyers put the pressure on. Within a 4 minute period, the Flyers scored 3 goals. Two of which came from Danny Briere. The first as he was exiting the penalty box and the second was on the Power Play. In between those two goals, Prospal scored his second of the game.

With the pressure that Philadelphia put on in the second period, Washington was able to shift momentum in their favor and put the pressure on Flyers in the third period.

Capitals defenseman Mike Green would score the next two goals to pull the Capitals even with the Flyers. Just prior to Green’s second goal, Flyer’s forward Patrick Thoresen blocked a slap shot and was injured. While Thoresen was obviously injured on the ice, why wasn’t play stopped? With an injured player on the ice, unable to get to the bench, the officials not calling play dead, gave the Capitals the advantage. Thoresen’s injury was serious, as he was rushed to the hospital after being helped off the ice.

For the first 55 minutes of the game, NHL leading scorer Alexander Ovechkin was pretty quiet, with the exception of a few thunderous hits. However, Ovechkin would ice the win for the Capitals by stealing the puck in the Flyers zone and roofing it over Martin Biron with four and half minutes left to play.

This series is just heating up. If this game was any indication, we have plenty of exciting hockey to watch between these two teams. The series continues Sunday afternoon in Washington.

Highlights
Game Summary
Box Score

Tags:   Biron · briere · Capitals · Flyers · Green · Ovechkin · ProspalNo Comments