Fresh off a huge loss to the Canadiens, the Flyers had to get the win this afternoon against the Detroit Red Wings, or risk watching their playoff hopes go up in smoke. Detroit came in as the hottest team in the NHL so it didn't seem likely the slumping Flyers would be able to knock them off. Guess again. The inspired play the Flyers exhibited in their last game carried over into this one and fueled the Orange and Black to a quick 2-0 lead, off scores by Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen, just over 7 minutes into the game. The Flyers then broke down a bit defensively, as Detroit scored a pair of soft goals late in the period to rally back to a 2-2 tie. The Flyers fought back in the 2nd period though with Claude Giroux scoring just seconds into the period for a 3-2 lead. Later with a little under 3 minutes to play in the period Aaron Asham made it 4-2 Orange and Black.
Early in the 3rd period Pavel Datsyuk scored to cut it to 4-3 ,but from there despite a furious late push from Detroit, the Flyers hung on to win, as Brian Boucher and the defense both rose to the occasion. Boucher was solid again with 31 saves out of 34 opportunities, and Detroit's red hot lineup was kept under wraps with just 25 shots on goal, and no real scoring opportunities down the stretch. Meanwhile, the Flyers simply did enough themselves, with those 4 goals, to hang on for the win. With the win the Orange and Black now have 84 points overall, still 8th in the East, and 2 points up on the 9th place New York Rangers. So they must remain in must win mode like they were today, and keep winning if they are to hang on to a playoff spot.
2 comments:
What a big win for the Flyers. It may not have been the prettiest but a win is a win and those 2 points are big. Hopefully they can finish off the season with a few more wins and stay safe from those non-playoff spots.
-to ph1llysports
yeah hopefully
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