Philly Continues to Fly! Game 7 in Boston Friday
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The good news is that the Bruins played much better last night in Philadelphia than they did in game 5 against the Flyers in Boston. The bad news is the series is heading back to the TD Garden for a seventh and deciding game tomorrow night.
Left for dead after losing the first three games of the series, the Flyers have battled back to tie the series up after last night’s 2-1 win. What’s concerning for the Bruins is that Philadelphia has controlled this series ever since Simon Gagne’s overtime winner in game 4.
After dominating the Bruins in game 5, Philly continued their strong play in the opening minutes of game 6. Mike Richards lit the lamp at 6:58 of the first period to put the Flyers up 1-0. It wasn’t until the Bruins killed a Philadelphia power play with 7 minutes to go in the first that they finally regained their form from early in this series. But the Flyers are now a confident team and they would not buckle.
What’s worse is that a supposed break for Boston may ultimately turn out to be a curse. When Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher went down in game 5, back-up Michael Leighton replaced him between the pipes. The feeling is that Leighton would be rusty and unprepared to play at the high level necessary to win a playoff game. All he has done since stepping in is stop 44 of 45 Bruin shots that he has faced. He denied 14 Boston shots in game 5 before stopping 30 of 31 Bruin shots last night.
Even though Boston put pressure on the Flyers virtually all night long, Philadelphia managed to add to their lead in the second on Danny Briere’s power play goal. The Flyers had a golden opportunity to make it 3-0 in the third but Tuukka Rask made a great glove save on a penalty shot by Philly’s Ville Leino.
With Rask off the ice for an extra attacker late in the third period, Milan Lucic put Boston on the board with exactly 1 minute to play. But the Flyers managed to hang on and force a seventh game in Boston Friday night.
Many will say that the pressure is on the Bruins as they will not want to blow a 3-0 series lead by losing the series. But this is a game 7 which brings with it pressure on both sides and you can bet that Bruins fans will be ready to give their team a home ice advantage in that game.
Whoever wins on Friday will have home ice advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals thanks to another huge upset by the 8th-seeded Montreal Canadiens. The Habs won game 7 of their semifinal series last night in Pittsburgh 5-2. Montreal beat top-seeded Washington in the opening round of the playoffs.
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It