BOX SCORE
Not that it was ever in doubt, but the Flyers became the third team from the Atlantic Division to clinch a playoff berth on Saturday night.
The Flyers got three power-play goals from the best penalty kill unit in the leaguetwo of them from slumping Danny Briere who has officially begun his personal playoff run a few weeks early, during a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at Wells Fargo Center.
I dont know about that, Briere said. I just want to find a way to keep scoring goals. Its been an up and down season but the team keeps winning and that is all that matters.
He had a wonderful chance to get a hat trick in the final period during yet another power play set-up from Jaromir Jagr but couldnt get a handle on the pass at the net under pressure.
Speaking of special teams, the Flyers penalty killers did yeomans work, as well. Max Talbot, Braydon Coburn and Sean Couturier killed off the majority of a 5-on-3 Habs power play in the third period during the final 7-plus minutes to stifle what little momentum Montreal had.
Coming into the game, the Flyers had the fifth best power play in the league, despite scoring just two goals in their last 20 chances. They got three power play goals on their first four chances against the Canadiens.
NHL
And they went right to work in the first period.
With lanky Wayne Simmonds completely blocking goalie Peter Budajs vision, Timonen took the faceoff draw from Claude Giroux back at the point and fired a rising fastball that found nothing but net for a 1-0 lead.
It was just Timonens fourth goal of the season but second in the last four games.
Montreal might be 15th overall in the Eastern Conference and going nowhere fast, but the Habs came into the game with the NHLs top-ranked penalty kill unit89.4 percent.
Meanwhile, Ilya Bryzgalov faced just four shots in the first but had two good saves on wide open attempts, one from Aaron Palushaj during a two-on-one rush and the other on defenseman Frederic St. Denis from 10 feet outside the crease.
During another Flyer power play, they tried to get a little too cute with the puck and ended up turning it over.
Thats important to remember because early in the second period, where the Flyers again had dominant zone time, they continued to fuss around with fancy passes and cute plays instead of simply playing to their strength and hammering pucks, then rushing the net.
The wasted chances came back to haunt them at 3:44 when Lars Eller sprang Tomas Plekanec free on a breakaway and he converted to tie the game.
Plekanec almost got another cheapie (shorthanded) a few minutes later but Bryzgalov made a pad stop.
With that same Flyer power play winding down, Briere tipped a Matt Carle point drive into the net, to regain the lead, 2-1.
That was Brieres second goal this month. The other was an empty-netter. You have to go back to Jan. 7 against Ottawa (30 games ago) when he scored a hat trick to find the last goal by Briere where the goalie was actually in the net.
Before the period was over, Briere would take a Jagr pass into the zone and snap a wrister high, shortside to make it 3-0.
Briere has been a playoff performer, so if the same holds true, things are looking up for No. 48.
(more coming...)
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net