FLYERS NEWS

After a shootout loss to the lowly Flames, the Flyers looked to get back on track against the equally lowly New Jersey Devils. Unfortunately, the Orange and Black once again seemed to have little energy when it mattered most. They did out shoot New Jersey 41-25 and they did blank them on 3 power plays while finally scoring a power play goal of their own, but there was just something missing. Too many of their shots were easy saves for Johan Hedberg. It's one thing to just put pucks on the net and another to actually create scoring chances and challenge the goalie to make saves. The Orange and Black simply didn't do enough of that tonight and paid for it.

Through 2 periods the Flyers were down 1-0 and looking miserable. That's not an unusual occurence for them against the Devils, that is when Marty Brodeur is in the net, but the mediocre Hedberg should not have been able to do that. Still, a few minutes into the 3rd period, Danny Briere finally helped the Orange and Black cash in on a power play to knot it at 1 a piece. However, neither he nor the rest of the Flyers could manage a goal the rest of the way and the game went into overtime. Neither team scored in OT so for the 2nd night in a row the Flyers went into a shootout and again they came up short. This time Nikolay Zherdev scored in the 3rd round of the shootout, but after that Jason Arnott and Travis Zajac both beat Brian Boucher while Mike Richards was thwarted by Hedberg to hand the Devils the 2-1 shootout win.