Friday, April 22, 2011
Posted: 10:32 p.m.Updated: 11:59 p.m.
By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com
BOX SCORE
Brian Boucher stared into the cameras, grimaced and spoke.
I take full responsibility for it, said the Flyers goalie. I put my team behind the eight ball. It was on me. Those are goals that cant go in.
Two brutal goals in less than four minutes. Then a third on the power play. Eleven shots overall.
Bouchers shocking failure in Game 5 wasnt the sole reason the Flyers lost 4-3 in overtime to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night at Wells Fargo Center.
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Yet, it was a significant one as the Sabres can close out this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with a victory in Game 6 Easter Sunday in Buffalo. The Sabres now lead the series, 3-2.
Tyler Ennis rebound won it in overtime.
As bad as Boucher was, the Flyers mounted an incredible comeback to tie the game and force overtime.
The reality is, what lost the game was the Flyers power play, which has been an object failure since mid-November. The PP went 0 for 5 and is now 2 of 26 in the series.
All three Buffalo wins have been by one goal. A goal the power play should have provided. And hasnt.
You could say that about any game, Laviolette said of his power play. Its a fair assessment.
The power play actually robbed the Flyers of momentum at critical junctures even during their comeback.
Flyers center Danny Briere said no one thinks this team is dead in the water right now.
I feel good about our game; we deserved to win that, he said. The chances were lopsided. Bad start spotting them a three-goal lead and 10-2 on shots on net. Just a bad start.
But the rest of the way, we cant hang our heads. We were in worst position last year. So, if there is a group of guys who can do it, I believe in this group of guys here.
The incredible, second-period comeback saw the Flyers dominate every aspect of play but onethe power play, where they went scoreless on three tries. Even strength, however, they scored twice while outshooting the Sabres, 15-5.
Buffalo clung to a 3-2 lead to start the third period. At 3:36 Kris Versteeg, hustling all night, chased down a puck behind the net, fell on his fanny and trapped it for Mike Richards.
Richards quickly threw it across from behind the net to Briere, who jammed it inside the right post off his backhand to tie the game. The comeback was complete.
The Flyers had a power play in the final minutes of regulation, had a couple chances, then after Peter Laviolette called his timeout, over passed the puck without a shot.
Ryan Miller was very sharp in overtime with four saves.
Ryan was good once again, Briere said. He made the difference tonight with the amount of chances we had. Late on the power play he made a good save on JVR James van Riemsdyk.
If only the start had been better for Boucher.
The first goal from Ennis came at the end of a long shift with a gassed Nikolay Zherdev dogging Ennis down the left side off transition, then tiring as Ennis eluded him and fired from a bad angle off Bouchers pad and through his five-hole at 2:24.
Almost 90 seconds later, Thomas Vanek, working from below the goal line to Bouchers left, fired a shot that somehow squeezed through the right post at 3:51, making it 2-0 amid dropped jaws from the stunned, sellout crowd.
The second one, I dont know if I could have done anything differently, the guy banked it off of me, Boucher said. The first one was me anticipating a pass and he threw it on net.
Incredibly, the Flyers talked about using the energy within the building to give them some juice at the start
I take full responsibility for it, Boucher said.
Boucher, who has been so strong in this series, looked so awful.
Its a tough job, Briere said. Sometimes you can be a hero quick, but it can go the other way pretty quick as well. Thats the nature of the position. Youve got to give Leights Michael Leighton a lot of credit.
He played one game in the NHL this year, and to come back with the way he played in the last 50, 55 minutes, well see what happens over the next couple of days.
The third goal was a 4-on-3 Sabres power play with Richards in the box for slashing in what should have been a continuation of 4-on-4, but thats another story.
The Sabres dazzled the Flyers with back-and-forth passing before Marc-Andre Gragnani roofed a shot, chasing Boucher for Leighton at 3-0.
Laviolette was calm between periods.
I think just breathe and settle down, Claude Giroux said of his message. I think it wasnt time to panic. We had 40 minutes left and three goals. We have a lot of guys on this team that can score goals. Hope guys are pretty excited for Sunday.
From the point Leighton entered, the Flyers were all over the Sabres, outshooting them 13-1 at one juncture in the second period.
Remember Boston last spring? Flyers trailing 3-0 in Game 4? JVR ignited the historic comeback. Likewise here as he got a stretch rebound in the crease at 8:12 for the first, Flyer goal.
We knew we had a lot more to give after that first period, JVR said.
Two minutes later, Versteeg threaded a pass between two defenders to himself to gain entry into the zone. Versteeg then went to the net to screen out Miller as Andrej Meszaros blasted from the point. Now it was 3-2.
To that point, from the time Boucher left the game in the first period, the Sabres had just three shots on net. Thats how dominant the Flyers were. Not only that, they were killing the Sabres on the backcheck, even Zherdev, who doesnt do that very often.
We feel that weve had control of the puck in every game for the most part, and weve out-chanced them most of the games, Briere said. I dont know, outplayed is a strong word, but we believe that we are the better team, but theres not much time left to prove that.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net
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