FLYERS NEWS

The Flyers and Devils met at the Wachovia center in game 3 of their conference quarterfinal series. After dropping game 2 to New Jersey on a late goal, the Flyers looked to regain the series momentum with a win on the home ice tonight. They almost buried themselves early though, with 7 penalties in the 1st 2 periods. Fortunately, the penalty kill came up big and held New Jersey to just 2 scores over those 7 power plays. So like the Orange and Black in game 2 New Jersey did not really take advantage of its plethora of opportunities and it came back to bite them. Brian Rolston did score on their first power play for a stunning 1-0 Devil lead to start the night, but the Flyer's came right back a minute later, with Claude Giroux deflecting in a power play goal of his own to knot things up at 1. Then just a minute into the 2nd period Mike Richards muscled another one by Marty Brodeur, off a perfect feed from Dan Carcillo and the Flyers had themselves a 2-1 lead.

On their 6th power play opportunity Rolston finally cashed in again for the Devils to knot things up at 2 heading into the 3rd period. The Flyers were dominant in the 3rd period out shooting New Jersey 12-3 and would have skated away with the win, but Brodeur got hot. 12 dazzling saves later and the game was in overtime. There just a minute and half in New Jersey committed a penalty, giving the Flyers a power play opportunity they would not let get away. Thanks to Brodeur, the Flyers did not score on the power play itself, but just 5 seconds after it ended, as they finished off their last rush of the power play, Mike Richards got in on net and while he had Marty clinging to one post, he managed to slap the puck through to the other, wide open side of the net, where Dan Carcillo was waiting for the easy slap in and the win! A wild celebration ensued on the ice as the Orange and Black took the 2-1 series lead. They can't get to excited yet though. There are still 2 more games to win before this series is over.