Less than two minutes into a must-win playoff game, the best defenseman in uniform, Braydon Coburn, took a deflected slapshot in the face. Coburn curled into the fetal position, blood soaking his gloves and staining the ice below.

It was the other shoe dropping on the Flyers' chances to win a game here. They'd been stunned by the loss of Kimmo Timonen about 24 hours before Game 1. Now they would have to play 58 minutes, and maybe more, without Coburn.

That meant more ice time for wounded veterans Derian Hatcher and Jason Smith. It meant mixing up defensive pairings. It meant facing the Penguins' outstanding power play without their two best penalty killers.

It was, ultimately, too much to overcome in another 4-2 defeat.

The Penguins, who are 7-0 here in this postseason, are in position to make this a short series. The shame of it, if that happens, is that the Flyers did not get a chance to play this series at full strength.

They showed last night that they will not go quietly. They survived a one-sided first period (with a little help from Toronto), giving up just one goal that counted. They scored two second-period goals, one on the power play and one shorthanded, to give themselves a chance.

"We were right there," said Joffrey Lupul, who had a pretty assist on Jeff Carter's power-play goal. "It's not like we're playing a team that's out of our league. They had a lot of power plays and we didn't, and still we were right there with a chance to tie it. If we can hold home ice, all we have to do is win one here."

It took just one careless mistake to turn this into a Flyers loss, and you wonder what part fatigue played.

Steve Downie, dressed for the first time since Game 7 of the first round, whiffed on an attempt to clear the puck out of the Flyers' zone. Hatcher, who played a team-high 28 minutes, 31 seconds, had a crack at it, too. The puck wound up on the stick of Georges Laraque. Sami Kapanen trailed Laraque, trying to knock the puck away, but the big forward fired it behind the net. Gary Roberts dug it out and slid it in front, where Maxime Talbot was waiting.

That was the game-winner. Hatcher knocked Talbot over in frustration and disgust. Too late. The puck was in the net.

"I failed to clear it, and it cost us a goal," Downie said. "It was pretty bad. It cost us the game."

There were plenty of other factors in this one. It is all too easy to gripe about officiating, especially in the NHL, but referees Kelly Sutherland and Dan O'Halloran did a poor job throughout this game. We're not talking anti-Flyers conspiracies here. The officiating was bad for both teams.

In fairness, hockey is the toughest sport to officiate. It moves faster, and the two referees can't possibly see the entire playing surface at once. So players are going to get away with things, such as the elbow Evgeni Malkin threw into Danny Briere's head late in the second period. A little earlier, Briere managed to trip Jarkko Ruutu in the open ice.

Briere's trip was as sneaky, but not as dangerous as Malkin's elbow. The Russian star is too good a player to engage in such nonsense. And if the league doesn't take some kind of action - and it almost certainly will not - then chances are the Flyers will take it upon themselves to take a shot at Malkin in Games 3 or 4.

If the officials are bound to miss some things, they are still responsible for getting other things right.

They blew the call on what would have been the Penguins' second first-period goal. After a review, the goal was disallowed, essentially because Marty Biron's glove blocked the camera's view of the puck. But if you can see one side of the puck and it is six inches over the goal line, there is no way the entire puck isn't in the net. Ignoring physical reality to adhere to the letter of a rule is absurd.

Some of the penalties called (and not called) were ridiculous, too. Hatcher went to the penalty box for playing sound positional defense on Malkin. The Penguins scored nine seconds later.

Lupul was asked about the officiating.

"I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say," he said, which said plenty.

"We're not expecting any help," said Mike Richards, who scored a spectacular shorthanded goal. "We just have to go about our business."

The Flyers get to play the next two at home. Maybe they'll even get a chance to play without losing a key player in stunning fashion.