The Flyers and Bruins met at Wachovia center tonight for game 3 of their conference semifinal series. Trailing 2-0 in the series tonight was a must win for the Orange and Black. As expected they came out strong with Aaron Asham scoring just 2 and a half minutes into the contest to give the Flyers their first lead of the series at 1-0. It lasted all of 2 minutes before Boston was tied at 1 and then another minute before the Bruins led 2-1. Behind yet again, the Flyers just didn't have the energy to recover this time. Mark Recchi put the proverbial nail in his old mates' coffins with a power play goal early in the 3rd period and then Patrice Bergeron nailed the coffin shut with an empty netter to cap off a disappointing 4-1 Boston victory.
Cynics will say that the Orange and Black lost this one and will lose the series because they have reverted back to their regular season ways, but I don' t think that's totally true. I believe they simply came into this series too outmanned and outgunned to succeed. Boston has had the best penalty kill in the playoffs so far and today was no different with the Flyers going 0 for 4 on the power play. You just can't beat a penalty kill that is firing on all cylinders if the like the Flyer's you don't have all your big guns. The Flyers also played pretty good defense tonight holding Boston to just 19 shots on goal and Brian Boucher saved 16 of them. So You can't say the Flyer's level of play and effort has dropped off really, it just doesn't go as far without the likes of Simon Gagne, Jeff Carter, and Ian Laperriere in the lineup. Gagne could return tomorrow which could help, and teams have come from 3-0 down to win series in the NHL before, but I would say this series is over for the Orange and Black. Hopefully they at least push it to 5 or 6 games though.
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