FLYERS NEWS

The Orange and Black got demolished in game 3 of the Eastern conference finals so aided by the returns of Jeff Carter and Ian Laperriere to the lineup, they came into game 4 this afternoon determined not to let that happen again. For Peter Laviolette improving from one game to the next usually means toughening up defensively. Boy did they do that today. From beginning to end they smothered the Habs, holding them to just 17 shots on goal. In the 2nd period alone Montreal had just 1 shot on goal. In the 3rd period when you would figure the Habs to be desperate and come out firing they still could only get 9 shots on goal. When they did get anything through the Flyer's defense Micheal Leighton was there to stop it every time as he recorded his 3rd shutout of the series. As defense goes it just doesn't get any better than what the Flyers did today. If they can play D like that for the remainder of playoffs they might just sip from Lord Stanley's Cup, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. There's still another game to win in this series.

As tough as they have been this postseason it's hard to see Montreal having much will left for game 5 of this series but who knows. The Orange and Black will just have to be sure to continue this effort and sit back like Boston in the last round. Anyway back to this game in case you were wondering about the Flyers scoring in this one, it went through the defense also. First Kimmo Timonen hit Claude Giroux as he rumbled into the zone and around the Montreal defense before beating Jaroslav Halak to his left for a 1-0 lead. 10 minutes later Chris Pronger found Ville Leino in about the same position and he too beat Halak to left before crashing into the net for a 2-0 lead. Finally late in the 3rd Giroux scored again on the Habs emtpy net to finish off the 3-0 win. So the Orange and Black are totally healthy now and one game from the finals. I don't think there is a much better position to be in. Go Flyers!