PHILLIES FLY TO FINAL

 Who would have ever dreamt that the Philadelphia Flyers would finesse themselves to the Eastern Final after being down 3-0 in the series, and then down 3-0 in the seventh tie-breaker, by 14:10 of the second period. The Flyers had taken two stupid high sticking penalties in the first, which lead to two power play goals for Boston, and then Milan Lucic got his second goal, and it looked as though the game had been decided in the first period. However, James van Riemsdyk got –his first ever play-off goal — with 3 minutes left in the period. The Bruins had out-shot the Flyers 14-8. Early in the second Philadelphia stepped up their game, and when Scott Harnell scored at 2:49, they were back in the game. They started to be more aggressive, even though they were still having trouble clearing their end. Fortunately, they got their first power play of the game, and even though they didn,t score, their momentum increased, and Danny Briere tied the game at 8:39. the Lyers were out shooting the Bruins at this point. With five minutes left in the game it appeared as though Boston scored and had retaken the lead, but the replay showed the puck never crossed the line. There was plenty of action and several opportunities for both teams, but the Bruins made the fatal mistake of the infamous — too many men on the ice — and opened the door to the power play goal from Simon Gagne to make it 4-3 with seconds left in the penalty. The rest of the period was tense and Boston put out a great effort to even the score, but Philadelphia’s lead prevailed and they took the series. Ironically enough 31 years to the day Boston lost to Montreal in the seventh game on a power play goal — too many men on the ice. What an exciting game with many twists and turns, that most certainly kept fans glued to their seats and televisions.

Flyers Make History

Various commercials have been played this spring saying that history will be made in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs and as it turned out they were right as the Philadelphia Flyers became only the third team in NHL history to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. Things didn’t start off well for Philadelphia on Friday night as the Boston Bruins sprinted out to a 3-0 lead before Flyers coach Peter Laviolette called a first period timeout to calm down his troops. That proved to be the turning point as Philadelphia began playing much better as they became the first team since the New York Islanders in 1975 to win a series after losing the first three games. 35 years ago the Islanders who would win the Stanley Cup five years later pulled the trick against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In the second round that year they once again dropped the first three games against the Philadelphia Flyers before this time losing the seventh. The Flyers who this year finished seventh in the Eastern Conference this season with 88 points became the first team since the Calgary Flames back in 1991 (against the Edmonton Oilers) to come back from three goals down in a Game seven. Early in the game penalties and shaky goaltending were costly for the Flyers. With forward Scott Hartnell in the sin bin Michael Ryder got the game’s first goal. Approximately four minutes later the Bruins power play struck again as Milan Lucic scored his first of two consecutive goals. The second goal came at even strength on an odd man rush. Late in the first period Philadelphia who were badly outshot 14-8 grabbed a bit of momentum as they got on the scoreboard with a goal from James Van Riemsdyk which seemed to spark the Flyers.“We fought back, took it one goal at a time,” Flyers captain Mike Richards said. “JVR got a big goal for us and gave us some momentum at the end of the first period. Then we started to relax and play hockey—we felt a little more comfortable on the ice. We had a couple of bounces and they ended up in the net.” In the second Philadelphia came out attacking and got an early goal from Scott Hartnell which silenced the Bruins faithful. At around the eight minute mark Philadelphia who registered 11 second period shots tied the affair on a goal from Danny Briere. Coincidently enough it was 31 years to the day that Boston was called for a to many men on the ice penalty that would cost them their playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens and as Yogi Berra would say it was déjà vu all over again. With the score tied at three and overtime looking like a strong possibility Boston got a bench minor for too many men and Flyers Simon Gagne made him pay by scoring the Game 7 winner. “After Game 1, and even after 3-0 tonight, we could have quit,” Gagne said. “We just said ‘let’s put one in and you never know what happens.’ Fortunately, they took a penalty and we were able to score on the power play.” With the series win the never say die Flyers will host the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference finals beginning on Sunday night.

Taylor Hall Makes a Loud Statement

Taylor Hall made a loud and clear statement to all the scouts attending the Memorial Cup tournament with not only his scoring abilities but also his incredible focus in competing at all costs. During the early seconds of play this 18 year-old who is projected to go first or second in next month’s NHL draft went head first into the end boards and eventually made his way back to the bench where trainers attended to his numerous facial cuts. “I thought he was done,” Hall’s teammate Adam Henrique said. Not only was Hall not done but he showed that burning desire by coming back in this opening game and scoring two goals to lead the defending Memorial Cup champions to a convincing 9-3 win against the host Brandon Wheat Kings. If Windsor can defend their title then they will become the first to pull it off since the Kamloops Blazers did it way back in 1995. Repeating certainly isn’t out of the question for Windsor who amazingly swept three out of the four teams they battled this spring during the OHL playoffs. What was more amazing was that during their conference finals they dropped the first three games of a best of seven series against the Kitchener Rangers before surprisingly coming back off the canvas to win the next four games. “We just have a lot of firepower,” Spitfires Scott Timmins said. “Every line is, obviously, dangerous out there.” That explosion came within the first five minutes on Friday when Windsor scored the first four goals against Brandon. Approximately 90 seconds after Hall went down with what was a cut on his forehead and a bloody nose the Spitfires got revenge when Kenny Ryan scored. “That first goal sort of settled us, a little bit,” Windsor coach Bob Boughner said. Later in the game Windsor took control by scoring three goals within 80 seconds including a highlight marker by Hall when he pulled the puck between his skates in getting around his defender before driving to the slot and scoring.  The other two were scored by Timmins and Adam Henrique. From that point Windsor didn’t relinquish control as they built their lead to 5-0 after a single period and never looked back. “We just weren’t good enough,” Wheat Kings defenceman Travis Hamonic said. “We know we’ve shown that we can be much better. And the nice thing about it is we are going to show it, and we’re going to prove it to everybody.” Also scoring for Windsor was Hall, Henrique and Timmins with their second and singles to Dale Mitchell and Zack Kassian.