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In this year's NBA playoffs, there has been a dramatic difference in how teams perform at home vs. playing on the road.
It really doesn't make a lot of sense how the Lakers can beat up on the Utah Jazz in Los Angeles, and then stink up the joint in Salt Lake City.
It made even less sense in the opening round how the lowly Atlanta Hawks could beat the Celtics three games at home, but get blown out by an average of more than 25 points in four games in Boston.
Going into last night, the Detroit Pistons were the only team to win a road game in the four second-round series.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, it just doesn't seem to work the same way in hockey.
For whatever reason, in the National Hockey League, playing at home seems to make little difference.
After losing Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference finals in Pittsburgh, the Flyers were looking forward to the lift they would get from the nearly 20,000 orange-clad maniacs who showed up at the Wachovia Center last night.
They were hoping the support of their rabid fan base would provide the edge they needed to match up better with what appears to be a superior Pittsburgh Penguins team.
They needed an NBA-type swing to change the momentum of this playoff series.
It didn't happen.
In hockey, well, at least in this particular series, being the better team trumps being at home.
Pittsburgh stunned the Flyers crowd by scoring twice in the first 8 minutes and then went on to grab a 4-1 victory and a 3-0 series lead.
"We knew if we could score first that would be huge for our team and could quiet the crowd," said Pittsburgh winger Marian Hossa, who scored twice. "Basically [the crowd] is their sixth player, because the people here are unbelievable. They're really loud.
"So we did it, and that was kind of the first step."
Flyers fans did their part.
They were fired up from the outset.
They didn't fade away when the Flyers gave up two early goals.
And when R.J. Umberger got the Flyers on the board at 10:59 of the first period, the house burst back to life.
For nearly 40 straight minutes the Flyer faithful cheered in a valiant effort to will the Orange and Black to tie the game.
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