Monday, April 18, 2011
Posted: 11:21 p.m.By Sarah BaickerCSNPhilly.com
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- When the Flyers failed to find the back of the net during two big 5-on-3 power plays early in this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, they were heavily criticized. After all, a 5 on 3 is practically a giftespecially when facing a tough goaltender like Ryan Miller.
On Monday night, however, they found themselves on the other side of a two-man advantage. First, Nikolay Zherdev was sent to the box on a slashing minor. Then, just seconds later, Darroll Powe joined him after being called for charging with just under 13 minutes left in regulation.
Thats not exactly a situation a team wants to be in when playing in a building in which they have a history of postseason struggles.
Nonetheless, the Flyers penalty-killing unit came up big in the third period, and the team managed to fight their way to a 4-2 Game 3 win over the Buffalo Sabres, taking a 2-1 series lead.
I think it was one of the turning points of the game, Danny Briere said. Theres been 5 on 3s every game of this series. We got away with it last game when we gave them one and didnt score on ours, but tonight it was definitely a big key thing in the third.
For a Flyers team thats struggled to hold one-goal leads all season, killing of 1:16 of 5 on 3 when the scoreboard read 3-2 was a daunting task. That they managed to hold the Sabres scorelessand allow them just one chance on netmost certainly helped them power on to victory.
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It was huge, Sean ODonnell said. I think that if Buffalo had scored then and went on to win the game, that would have been the turning point of the game. The fact that we were able to kill that maybe took a little momentum from them and from the building.
Both were clear; the HSBC Arena was noticeably quieter after the home team failed to score, and the pace of the game was controlled by the Flyers.
As far as captain Mike Richards was concerned, his team was successful on the big third-period kill simply because they broke it down into basics, and frustrated the Sabres by doing what the textbook calls for.
It was good, Richards said. Our defense blocked a couple shots. There were a couple clears, which take 15 seconds off the clock. And Boosh (Brian Boucher) made a couple big saves when he needed to.
Kimmo Timonen, one of the penalty killers on ice for the bulk of the 5 on 3, went on to score an empty-net goal as seconds ticked down in the third period to seal the Flyers fate.
And of course, a lot of credit is due to goaltender Boucher.
Boucher, who faced 37 shots in total Monday night, remained calm and composed through almost all of themincluding the close call he faced during the 5 on 3. Thats exactly why coach Peter Laviolette made the decision to sit Sergei Bobrovsky, who had started the previous two games, in favor of him.
In the third period, with those power plays and the opportunity that they had, he just settled things down for us, Laviolette said. Thats what he did coming off the bench for us in his last few starts for us, he just settled things down. I said before the game started, he has a calming presence about him, and tonight that was the case as well.
As ODonnell was quick to mention after the game, it was the Flyers play that put them on the kill, and thats something theyll have to work on; the calls to Zherdev and Powe were both warranted.
That, ODonnell said, is something the team will have to work on in the coming days in order to continue to be successful. Its a well-known fact that in the postseason, an ill-timed penalty or a lucky power-play bounce can be all that separates a winner from a loser.
Special teams always factor into it, Laviolette said. They win hockey games, and the penalty kill won us a hockey game tonight.
E-mail Sarah Baicker at sbaicker@comcastsportsnet.com
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