Flyers seize control
Flyers 3, Canadiens 0
Flyers seize control
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
MONTREAL -- The Flyers are now one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals. Jeff Carter and Ian Laperriere returned to the lineup for the first time in about a month, and the Flyers regained control of their NHL Eastern Conference final series against the Montreal Canadiens with a 3-0 victory.
That is the news in two sentences. The context is much more complex, though.
With all due respect to Carter (returning from a broken foot) and Laperriere (from multiple head traumas suffered when blocking a shot), they were not the reason the Flyers gained a three-games-to-one lead in the series. There is no question that their teammates were glad to see them back and probably received some resulting jolt of adrenaline with their returns, but it wasn't decisive.
The Flyers won this game because they wrung the life out of it. They played how you have to play against the super-fast Canadiens, especially in the Bell Centre. It is a persistent style, patient and simple and physical most of all. It is all about safe choices and physical punctuation. It is about a willingness to throw the puck into the zone and go get it, to create a grinding mindset, and to force every counterattack by the Canadiens to travel 150 feet or so, rather than 100.
It is not pretty. Truth be told, NBC must have been crying as the Flyers' machinelike domination of the middle of the game began to manifest itself. The Canadiens, so rocket-fueled in their 5-1 victory in Game 3 of the series, had only one shot in the second period. They had zero shots for the first 13:34 of the period. The Canadiens were much better in the third period, and the Flyers might have gone into a little bit too much of a shell, but at that point, trying to overcome a two-goal lead remains a tough task against a team determined to protect it.
Meanwhile, the Flyers' first two goals were beauties. Claude Giroux got the first one at 5:41 of the second period, turning the corner on the Canadiens' defense and flipping a neat little forehand past Montreal goaltender Jaroslav Halak. Then, at 14:53 of the second, Ville Leino was the recipient of an exquisite breakaway pass from defenseman Chris Pronger, and he ended up kind of oomphing the puck over the goal line before the net was dislodged in a crash. The third goal, by Giroux again, was scored into an empty net.
Flyers goaltender Michael Leigton, meanwhile, got his third shutout of this series and his fourth of the playoffs, adding another chapter to the storybook. And while he made some nice saves, particularly on a late third period flurry, he would be the first one to tell you that this game was about a lot more than him -- a lot more. It was about a mindset most of all.
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SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!— beezy- WOW - just WOW— phillyjeffsr
- Easy Boys..it was a great win, but we were down 3-1 to the Bruins at one point, we don't want history to repeat itself— flyerdog
Comment removed.- Chris Pronger has been fab! Jeff Carter and Ian LaPerriere both improve the team from the previous state. Most of all, Michael Leighton has been a virtual wall excepting for the game three, when the whole team was off the mark. GO FLYERS!! The fork is in, give it a twist Monday night!— BEMiller
- Awesome! Thank you, Flyers!!! You just made this a GREAT Saturday afternoon!!!— Drigh13
- Hey Flyer nation: We are playing great and it was a great win for the orange and black. But just think back to what we did in the last series against Boston. We can't celebrate too much yet....We have to stay focused and come up with an even better effort in game five.— Ken_Spencer
- oh yeah. Giroux and the depth charts did really helped alot today.. Leighton's 3rd shutouts, and we're gonna shutout em off again this Mon! LETS GO FLYERS!— cmbfarrell
"Oh that's right, when it gets tough, the French retreat!" Retreat..heck no they Surrender- We have Giroux signed until he turns 60, right?— elpel
- Not even that pathetic organization's attempt to dull our skate blades by dumping sand outside of our dressing room could stop us! LMAO!!!! How sad is that!!!— BleedOrange
- Yeah baby! We whipped their asses. Cup Finals here we come!— JMM
Wow! The Flyers are right back where we thought they were gonna be at the beginning of the season. I've never seen so many ups and downs in overall level of play in a single season. These guys are firing on all cylinders right now!!! Pronger for Sbisa and 2 #1's for a 50-50 chance to win the Stanley Cup? A steal!!!— kjuggs77- What a win! Domination all the way! OLE OLE GO HOME HABS!!! LETS'S GO FLYERS!!!!!!!— Noodle
- what's up with the sand by the flyers locker room?— love park
