In the most evenly played game of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series to date, the Flyers dropped a gut-wrenching 4-3 overtime decision at the Prudential Center last night to fall behind the New Jersey Devils, two games to one. The series resumes on Sunday in Newark at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
Three Philadelphia power plays ended up looming large in the outcome of Game 3.
After the Flyers' overtime win in the first game of the series, New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur complained to the referees and media about being interfered with by James van Riemsdyk on the winning goal.
Late in the second period last night, Brodeur flopped to the ice as though he'd been hit by a truck as he was barely brushed into by Brayden Schenn. The referees obliged the future Hall of Fame goalie with a penalty call on Schenn, negating a goal by James van Riemsdyk that would have put the Flyers ahead, 3-2.
In the overtime session, the Flyers had two separate power play chances. They didn't manage so much as a shot on goal. The Devils seized the momentum and went to score the game-winning goal.
On the final sequence of the game, the Devils pinned the Flyers deep in their own end of the ice. When Philly finally managed to clear the puck, they attempted a risky line change; risky because the puck only got to the New Jersey blueline. In a flash, the Devils went off on a 2-on-1. Alexei Ponikarovsky followed up his own rebound to end the game.
Throughout the game, there were spurts of momentum for both sides. Peter Laviolette
juggled his line combinations, partially by design and partially by necessity (a lower-body injury sustained by Sean Couturier in the first period). The results were mixed.
Schenn, who scored the first goal of the game on a power play shot that got through the five hole, had his best all-around performance since early in the New Jersey Devils series. However, the Claude Giroux line continued to play erratically, even with a change to put Jakub Voracek on the line in place of a struggling Jaromir Jagr.
Voracek played fine and Scott Hartnell looked a little better at certain junctures than he did in Game 2. But Giroux was largely ineffective, and the forechecking pressure from the line as a whole was inconsistent. The line ended up combining for Matt Carle's goal that tied the score at 2-2 in the second period. But they were partially to blame for the defensive breakdown that led to Ilya Kovalchuk's goal and were also out for Zach Parise's goal; both of which put the Devils in front at the time.
Beyond the top line, there were too many key forwards who failed to step up. Jagr had a power play assist on the Schenn goal but was otherwise a non-factor. James van Riemsdyk disappeared for the second straight game. Wayne Simmonds remained AWOL in the offensive zone and vulnerable to overskating the puck in the defensive end.
Danny Briere scored a huge goal to send the game to overtime, but continued to struggle in the defensive zone. A first-period shift in which Dainius Zubrus' line cycled the puck at will for over a minute came at the expense of the JVR-Briere-Simmonds line with the defensive pairing of Erik Gustafsson and Andreas Lilja.
That was a momentum shifter, and it wasn't too long thereafter that the Devils scored two quick goals to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. By the way, I'm at a loss at this point to explain why the Flyers have fared so much better in their playoff record this year when trailing early rather than leading.
On the blueline, Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn and Matt Carle all played well. Nicklas Grossmann still looked "foggy"(for lack of a better word) but was adequate. The third pairing struggled.
Meanwhile, Bryzgalov played a decent overall game but not up to his level from the second game. The first New Jersey goal was not a good one, and Bryzgalov had periodic issues with preventable rebounds. However, the one that led to the Ponikarovsky goal was not one I'd call preventable. Bryzgalov also made some clutch stops when the team was trailing by one goal to keep them close in the game.
********
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Flyers Buzz. For more information click here.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»