BOX SCORE
NEWARK, N.J. -- To a man, the Flyers have been saying for days now how surprised they are by the New Jersey Devils' resolve against them.
Seeing is believing and theres little doubt now that the Devils have made believers out of the Flyers in this Eastern Conference semifinal series.
In yet another game where the final score wasnt a true indication of how lopsided the game itself was, Pete DeBoers Devils have pushed Peter Laviolettes club to the brink of elimination.
Sundays 4-2 mismatch in Game 4 at Prudential Center doesnt do justice to just how dominant the Devils were in defeating the Flyers to take a 3-1 stranglehold of the series.
The Devils were absolutely relentless in their puck pursuit, stripping the Flyers everywhere on the ice, denying them entry passes, beating them to pucks on the forecheck or simply stealing the few ones the Flyers actually got.
As Chris Therien said on WIP's radio broadcast, it was like men playing against boys.
It was embarrassing for the Flyers, who limp back to Philly for Game 5 on Tuesday knowing that could be their final game this season.
NHL
Once again, much of the game was spent in the Flyers end as the Devils fired shot after shot at goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.
Were it not for Bryzgalov, the Flyers would have been blown out in the second period when they were outshot, 16-5.
The Flyers went nearly a full 13 minutes from the periods start before Brayden Schenn got one on Devils goalie Martin Brodeur.
Bryz had some incredible stops under relentless pressure from Travis Zajac, Steve Bernier and Zach Parise. In each case, without help in front.
It was amazing that to that point, with the Flyers being outshot 30-11, it was still a 2-2 game because Bryz had given his team a chance.
Then it happened. New Jersey got a 2-on-1 -- one of many this game -- with Braydon Coburn breaking it up and the puck going behind the net where Kimmo Timonen remained as rookie Adam Henrique fed a wide-open Dainius Zubrus, who scored on a snap shot from 15 feet.
Bryzgalov slammed his stick down in frustration. His team had abandoned him earlier that period, anyway.
Moments before Zubrus' goal, Petr Sykora, who has had an impact in this series, deflected a puck at the net with Scott Hartnell right there for what would have been a Flyer goal.
One play at the very end of the second period seemed to symbolize all the pent up frustration the Flyers have dealt with during the series. It involved their on-ice leader, Claude Giroux, caught in the flashstorm.
Giroux threw a senseless high hit to Zubrus head, which earned a penalty for illegal head shot and is likely to be reviewed by the NHL for a possible Game 5 suspension.
Zubrus returned in the third period, which works in Girouxs favor as does the fact he has no previous history in matters like this one. What works against Giroux is that he came up ice arguing with Patrik Elias and then targeted Zubrus.
Giroux seemed to be angrily reacting to Brodeur playing a puck outside the trapezoid earlier in the shift without a call.
Nothing made sense about the opening period, either, though the Flyers were very lucky to survive it tied at 2-2.
After promising they would bring some bada boom! to this one, the Flyers were buried in their own end for the opening 4:32 of play as the Devils forechecked the daylights out of the them, forcing coach Peter Laviolette to call his only timeout right then. Shots were 4-0 at the time, too.
Things settled down and on the Flyers' second power play of the game, Scott Hartnell stuck his stick out to redirect Girouxs shot from the left circle for a 1-0 lead at 11:50.
The Flyers came into the game 1-4 when scoring first butthey were also 2-0 when grabbing a 2-0 lead in the series.
And that came less than two minutes later when Giroux emerged from a scrum near the blue line with Wayne Simmonds during a penalty kill. Simmonds hit him with a tape-to-tape pass that allowed Giroux to greet Brodeur on his 40th birthday with his second shorthanded goal in these playoffs.
If only the Flyers could have held that lead.
When the Devils reconvened on that power play, Sykora scored his second goal of the series off a nice redirect of Marek Zidlickys shot from the right point.
The Flyers penalty kill units have been poor all springranked 14th.
Zidlicky, a terrific pickup by the Devils at the trade deadline, notched his second point of the period in the final 1:51 with a redirect in front of Bryzgalov on a open shot from the slot.
Just like that, all the good the Flyers achieved was gone.
(More coming ...)E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net