The Flyers and Devils met at the Wachovia center tonight for game 4 of their Eastern conference quarterfinals series. The Devils appeared demoralized on Sunday after the Flyer's thrilling overtime victory. Tonight, while they did come out with some urgency and take a quick 1-0 lead, they still appeared to be a bit discouraged, almost in a "here we go again" haze and played the part tonight. They were lethargic on defense all night, taking lazy penalties and allowing the Flyers to overwhelm them the last couple periods, especially whenever the two teams were both at full strength. Of course with the two teams combining for 16 penalties, they weren't at full strength that often, but often for the Orange and Black to dominate. In short they played like they didn't believe they could still win the series and now after their dismal performance tonight they probably can't.
To their credit the Flyers really took it to New Jersey, almost as if they realized the Devils were ripe for the pickings in this one. Sure they fell behind 1-0 but they never got discouraged and they never backed down. After failing to score in the 1st period, the Orange and Black finally took advantage of a Devils penalty, with Jeff Carter registering the power play tally, his first score of the series, just 7 minutes into the 2nd period. Later, with about 3 minutes left in the period, Danny Briere broke away and sent a screaming slap shot past Marty Brodeur for a 2-1 lead. Early in the 3rd period, only about 4 minutes in, Dan Carcillo, the hero on Sunday, scored another important goal as he snuck a fluky sideways shot past Brodeur for a 3-1 lead. 5 minutes later on the Flyer's 7 power play, Carter cashed in again for a 4-1 lead which the Orange and Black rode to victory from there. No the series isn't over yet, and yes Flyer's need to stop taking so many penalties, but it's hard to see this version of the Devils pulling a 3-1 comeback, especially not with the way Brian Boucher and the Flyer's defense have performed so far in the series.
2 comments:
The Flyers have the Devils number and they are taking it to the them. With they way they are playing and the way Boosh is holding down the fort I cannot forsee the Devils winning this series and maybe even going farther.
-to ph1llysports
yeah same here
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