With the glory goals and great saves, we can't forget some of the other efforts that led to the Flyers' game 7 win in Boston. One of the greatest moments in this series came with the Flyers up a goal and less than 3 minutes to play. Mike Richards won a puck battle to break the play out of the Flyers' zone and take it full-speed into Boston's end. Then he pulled the spin-peel move we've seen him turn into a few goals this post-season, only this time he used it to shed the check and dump the puck safely behind the Bruins' net. Richie changed it up after that, and Simon Gagne picked up the puck off the opposite boards, throwing it behind the net again while Blair Betts and Claude Giroux took over. And I mean took. over.
Giroux singlehandedly takes about 25 seconds off the clock, with two, three, and even four Bruins doing everything they could to take him off the puck. Check out the video:
Once Giroux has the puck, the only Flyer anywhere near him is Blair Betts, and even he pulls off. Everyone else is high in the zone or stationed in the neutral zone to catch any possible Bruins breakout. Giroux took care of everything else. At the 0:30 mark of the video, Giroux even gets tripped hard by a stick, gets up and resumes battling. After he finally throws the puck around the end boards, he uses every bit of energy he has left to sprint off the ice for his line change before the Bruins can begin their breakout.
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That was it. I can't think of a better moment to define the series, with the Flyers flat-out outplaying the Bruins when it mattered most. And it wasn't for lack of effort on the B's side either. Says a lot for this young, scoring forward that he was able to put up that amazing of a defensive performance that late in a game 7.