Coming into tonight the Flyers were unbeaten in game 5s in the year's NHL playoffs. Not anymore after a stirring effort by the Chicago Blackhawks this one. Chicago just came out surging right from the beginning and the Flyers couldn't stay with them. They tried their hardest, I mean it's not as if they played all that poorly, Chicago was just too good in this one. Somehow the Flyers managed to withstand the early Chicago surge for 12 minutes before the Hawks finally got on the board and floodgates opened after that. By the time the 1st period was over Chicago led 3-0 and was well on their way to victory. To their credit the Flyers didn't give up though. Scott Hartnell scored only about 30 seconds into the 2nd period to cut it to 3-1. Then after Chicago made it 4-1 the Flyers answered back to cut it to 4-2.
Unfortunately Chris Pronger took a rare penalty near the end of the period and thus was not on the ice when Dustin Byfuglien finally scored his first goal of the series to make it 5-2. Still to the annoyance of Chicago the Flyers didn't give up as James Van Reimsdyk scored his 1st goal of the series to cut it to 5-3. The Orange and Black then had a chance on the power play after that to cut it to 5-4 but they couldn' t take advantage and Patrick followed not along after with breakaway goal to make it 6-3. The Flyers put together one last surge though as Ville Leino beautifully set up Simon Gagne to cut it to 6-4. Then with 2 and a half minutes to go the Flyers pulled Brian Boucher(he replaced Micheal Leighton after the 1st period) in favor of the extra attacker. Unfortunately it seemed they were just a little too spent to stage anymore heroics as Byfuglien managed to get the puck away and fire it down the ice and into the empty net to clinch a 7-4 win.
On the whole the game was a complete reversal of the rest of the series with Chicago having and the edge on special teams and a slight edge defensively. This Chicago tonight is the Chicago that was supposed to be here all series long and you just have to tip your cap to them after this performance. Still, if you take away the 1st period the Flyers played the Hawks to a draw the rest of the way. That tells me there is a very good chance that they'll win game 6 and force the series back to Chicago one more time for game 7 and who knows what happens after that.
1 comment:
This series continues to be a wild one and I find it quite exciting although I'm not digging all of this Flyers losing stuff. I think its the Flyers destiny to win this Stanley Cup with all that they have gone through so I cant wait for game 6 in Philly.
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