FLYERS NEWS

The Flyers and Canadiens met at the Wachovia center tonight to begin arguably the most improbable Eastern conference final series in history. On this night it would be the Orange and Black making history with a shockingly lopsided game 1 victory. 3:35 into the contest Braydon Coburn gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead off the power play, for his first ever playoff goal. The two teams tightened up defensively after that and it stayed 1-0 heading into the 2nd period. Have owned the 2nd period so far this postseason and tonight was no exception. Just 30 seconds into the period James Van Reimsdyk jammed one in to make 2-0. 4 minutes later and just after the Orange and Black's 2nd power play came to an end, Danny Briere wired one through traffic and into the back of net for a 3-0 lead. Five minutes later on their 3rd power play of the night, Simon Gagne drove to the net and slapped one in through traffic for a 4-0 lead.

That spelled the end of the night for Jaroslav Halak who came into the night as the best goaltender in the playoffs thus far. Instead, Carey Price took his place for the rest of the night but he had no better luck against the surging Flyers. Halfway through the 3rd Scott Hartnell wired another one in through traffic for a 5-0 lead. A minute later Claude Giroux authored a beautiful give and go off an odd man rush and put away a 6th score for the Orange and Black. That finally halted the Flyer's assault as they were content to coast the rest of the way and watch Micheal Leighton finish off his first playoff shutout with 28 saves. It really was a perfect night for the Orange and Black. They really couldn't have played any better. On other hand Montreal couldn't have played any worse and you can't expect them to play that poorly again in game 2, especially not Halak. So the Flyers will have to continue to bring the intensity to the ice that they brought tonight if they are to win this series and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. That's a long way off though. Right now they just need to focus on game 2.