Flyers lose Game 1 shootout
Blackhawks 6, Flyers 5
Flyers lose Game 1 shootout
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
CHICAGO -- "Wild" does not begin to describe the evening. "Wide-open" does not do the action justice. As someone ducking his head into the press box said last night, "Yeah, we all knew we were at the Stanley Cup Final -- but little did we know that it was the 1987 Stanley Cup Final."
But it was like that. It was every bit of that. And because the Blackhawks got the last goal -- by Tomas Kopecky, in the third period -- the Flyers' springtime of resilience will now be tested again. The final score was Blackhawks 6, Flyers 5. And it really was that wild.
Eleven goals -- and none of them were scored by the first-line players on either team, who canceled each other out and left the circus to everyone else.
Where to begin? The Flyers led by 3-2 after the first period, and that was the most goals scored in the opening period of a Stanley Cup Final in 28 years. The Flyers dominated in many ways, outshooting the Blackhawks by 17-9, but the Blackhawks can be devastating on the rush. They weren't able to sustain a lot of offensive possession time, but they made their chances count.
"I think everybody was a little bit nervous, fighting the puck," Danny Briere said. "With the atmosphere in the building it is not easy to control but it's good to have that lead."
To run through a description of all of the goals would be to re-write "War and Peace." Suffice it to say that neither goaltender was all that great, or all that well-supported. Both Antti Niemi of the Blackhawks and Michael Leighton of the Flyers gave them up in about every way you can give them up -- and, when the Blackhawks made it 5-4 at 15:18 of the second period on a shot by Troy Brouwer over Leighton's glove, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette had seen enough. Out came Leighton and in came Brian Boucher -- who hadn't played or dressed since spraining both knees in a crease pileup in Game 5 against Boston, on May 10th.
"You know sometimes you just feel bad," Gagne said, in an interview after the second period. "It's not Michael's fault. It's maybe our fault. We kind of left him by himself a couple times on a lot of those goals, so you feel bad for him and we're going to try to go back in and win the game for him."
Here is how the procession of Flyers goal-scorers went to that pont: Ville Leino, Scott Hartnell, Briere and Blair Betts, of all people. Hartnell had a great, active first period. Defenseman Chris Pronger had two assists in the first period and played an enormous 11 minutes, 45 seconds. But it was back and forth and then it was forth and back and it was 5-4 in favor of the Blackhawks when Boucher came in. Then, about 3 1/2 minutes later, it was 5-5 when Arron Asham scored his fourth goal of the playoffs (Briere and Hartnell each getting their second assists of the night).
And that's where it stood, going to the third period. And now, first and foremost, Laviolette will be asked questions about his goaltender for Game 2.
Hawks are much more relentless than anything the Flyers have seen thus far. Sticking with Hawks in 5.— St.Patrick33- Game was slop— jibberjabber
- Not. Good.— DrM
- i'd go with hextall— alyosha
- Ugh!— jdincincy
- does it matter? is there really a difference? The defence was terrible. Since Lavy is only playing 4 d-man, they are going to get tired if this series gets lengthy.— St.Patrick33
Comment removed.- Horrible defensive effort.— n62
- Game 2 Bouche' in Leighton out!— Paul1954
- Chicago has a week defense that Laviolette will exploit in game 2,...Flyers defense is much better and will change from what we just wittnessed,...Flyers carry the play to the Hawks more than they do and if we do what got us here we should be in good shape to steal game 2,...is it just me or does Carter look like he's ready to break out??— SyddBarrett
coburn is and always will be a liabity for this team- That last goal saved Leighton's job.— n62
- How can any stupid person say hawks in five after a game that they were Lucky to win. You sir should have your head checked!!!!!!— rgreen72
- Comment removed.
- Lights Out is back in goal.. He now has something to prove. The Flyers don't need to win 4 games, they only need to win 1... The next one.— dedhed
