The Broad Street Blog

Last Thursday, the Flyers won a dramatic game 4 in the second overtime period. That win gave them a commanding 3 games to 1 lead in their first round series with the Washington Capitals. After three strong games, most thought that the series was pretty much won by the Flyers. No one thought that the Capitals could come back. Last night, just a few days later, they did just that. They tied the series at 3 games, and forced a deciding game 7.

After failing to get the job done on Saturday afternoon, the Flyers wanted to come out tonight and finish off the Capitals. They new the win by Washington on Saturday gave them some life and hope. It gave them momentum knowing they could possibly come back in the series. Philadelphia needed to do everything it could to end the series.

The Flyers came out strong and controlled the pace of play early in the game. They got an early power play goal my Mike Richards. Richards came in from the point and was able to bury the rebound from Kimmo Timonen’s shot in the back of the net.

Early in the second period, on another power play opportunity, Danny Briere scored his 6th goal of the playoffs. This gave the Flyers a two goal lead in the game.

About half way through the second period, the momentum started to change. The Flyers allowed the Capitals to get back into the game and take over the momentum. Philadelphia started to play like the team that blew a two goal lead in game 1.

The Capitals were propelled in the second period by two even strength goals. One by Nicklas Backstrom and the other by Alexander Semin. In less than half a period, the Flyers’ two goal lead had evaporated.

By the third period, the Flyers were panicky, and the Capitals were able to pressure them into making mistakes. Capitals goaltender Christobal Huet made several outstanding saves to prevent the Flyers from putting any further points on the board. In my opinion, it has been Huet that has kept his team in this series.

In the third period, Alexander Ovechkin was finally able to break out of the hold the Flyers have had on him. After 65 goals in the regular season, he had only 1 so far in the playoffs. And that was in game one. Early in the period, he stole a Flyers’ pass in his own zone, which gave him breakaway on Martin Biron and he roofed the puck over the Flyers goaltender to give Washington the lead.

Later in the period, Ovechkin would score again on a Washington power play to ice the win for the Capitals.

The Flyers had the opportunities in this game but couldn’t finish. They allowed the Capitals to come back in both this game and the series. Tomorrow night is game seven and it is win or go home.

Highlights
Game Summary
Box Score

Tags:   Backstrom · briere · Capitals · Flyers · Ovechkin · Richards · TimonenNo Comments