Bernie Parent was the Flyers' goalie instructor when Ron Hextall, then an irreverent rookie, propelled the club to the 1987 Stanley Cup finals.

He observed Brian Boucher, more orthodox and respectful, make the same in a run to the Eastern Conference finals after the 1999-2000 season.

And, of course, he reigns as the top Flyer in large part because he completed the deal in 1974 and '75, bringing the Flyers their only two Cups.

Now, he's watching Martin Biron, who, in his first NHL postseason action, stymied top seed Montreal and cooled magma-hot Washington, with MVP candidate Alex Ovechkin.

"Biron is really playing well," said Parent.

Maybe it's just Biron's turn. It seems that, once a decade, a Flyers goaltender spurs them to postseason heights with play so empirically solid that the team operates on a higher level.

"When a goaltender's playing like this, the team knows that, if they make a mistake, the goalie's going to bail them out," Parent explained. "They take more chances, especially offensively."

Tonight, Biron and the Flyers are in Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference finals to take on Sid the Kid and his Crosby-ettes, chief among them, Marc-Andre Fleury, 23, in his second full NHL season, his second playoff appearance and possibly the playoffs' best goaltender.

"It reminds me of the old days," Parent said. "It's a bunch of blue-collar people playing on this team. From the goaltender on up, they know they have a job to do."

That's the thing: From the goaltender, on up.

On a team without a slew of superstars, you need a hot goalie. In Biron, the Flyers have one.

"If you're fortunate to build momentum, it's a beautiful thing," Parent said. "He has built that momentum."

A glance at the stats - 2.72 goals against, .914 save percentage, both slightly worse than his regular-season efforts - does not accurately tell the tale of Biron's excellence.

It began, for Biron, by shutting out the Devils, then the Penguins, in his last two starts of the regular season, both of which mattered.

He rebounded from a five-goal playoff debut against the Caps with a shutout in Game 2, a crucial, two-overtime win in Game 4 to take the lead in the series, 3 games to 1. His scintillating effort in Game 7 made Montreal a possibility.

There, in Game 1, he gave up a clearly illegal high-stick goal and lost in overtime . . . and proceeded to give up a total of 10 goals in the next four games, all Flyers wins.

"Right now, Biron is seeing the puck in slow motion,'' Parent said. "Your anticipation is better. You have blinders on, just like the horses. The world just doesn't exist outside of hockey, at this time, for you. Nobody else exists."

"He's doing a heck of a job, for as long as he's waited," said Boucher, a backup for San Jose, which just got bounced in the Western Conference semis.

Thanks to the time difference, Boucher was able to watch almost every one of the games involving the team on which he was once the unquestioned fulcrum, albeit briefly. At Sharks team dinners, and afterward, in the team commingling room, the Flyers were on.

"I didn't think they'd be able to shut down Ovechkin like that," said Boucher.

Which brings up the issue: How much is it Biron, or any goalie?

"Frankly, in '87, much too much of the credit went to me," admitted Hextall, now assistant general manager for the Los Angeles Kings. "For 2 months, guys pretty much gave up everything. Their lives. Their bodies."

Hextall was good . . . but so were Tim Kerr, Mark Howe, Dave Poulin - you name it.

"We had guys getting shot up before every game. Guys playing with broken ribs," Hextall said. "I don't know if that team gets enough credit."

Today, Daniel Briere is returning expected dividends on the investment that made him a Flyer. R.J. Umberger is playing out of his mind. It was defenseman Kimmo Timonen, as much as Biron, who received credit for slowing Ovechkin. Alas, Timonen is through for the season, with a blood clot in his ankle.

Boucher had Mark Recchi, John LeClair, Eric Desjardins, Keith Primeau, Rick Tocchet.

Defensemen such as Ed Van Impe and Joe Watson kept things less troublesome for Parent. Rick MacLeish had 22 playoff points in 1974, and, of course, Bobby Clarke won his second of three MVP awards in 1975, but Clarke, then and now, gave credit for the Cups - and his MVPs - to his teammates, especially to Parent.

"I was the only thing," Parent joked.

Maybe.

Parent took home a Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender in both Cup years (shared with Tony Esposito in 1974), then, both times, won the Conn Smythe as the playoff MVP. His numbers were outstanding: 2.02 and 1.89 goals-against averages in the successive playoff campaigns, almost mirroring his regular-season marks.

Hextall was only slightly better in his first playoff run than in his rookie season: 2.77, .908 vs. 3.00 and .902. Like Parent, he won the Vezina and the Conn Smythe, the latter despite the Flyers losing in the Cup finals.

Boucher was not quite as good in his postseason, but stellar nonetheless: 2.03, .917 vs. 1.91, 9.18.

All admitted that the concept of the "hot" goalie might be misleading, that a condensed sample isn't always the best representation of a goalie's ability.

"It might look that way, but only because it's over a short period of time," Parent said.

"Over 80 games, there's going to be ups and downs," Hextall agreed. "It's a little bit easier to be consistent for 2 months vs. an entire season."

Then again, virtually no regular-season game resonates like a playoff game. And when a goalie stands out in a playoff game - well, a legend is built.

Hextall's run, for instance, probably doesn't happen without a giant measure of confidence. He gave up four goals in the first two periods in Game 2 of the conference final against Montreal and got pulled, but contended, "I didn't do anything wrong. I have confidence in my ability and I know I'll bounce back."

He did, with 19 first-period saves on a 36-save night in Game 3, and carried that heat into another win in Game 4 for a 3-1 series lead.

"Ron was in the zone," Parent said.

In the Cup finals, Hextall and his "beat-up" teammates, as he called them, could only do so much against Edmonton, with its Hall of Fame juggernaut, finally losing Game 7 on the road.

"I don't know if Jesus Christ could have beaten that Edmonton team," said Parent, whose signature game was his 1-0 shutout of the Bruins in the clinching Game 6 of Flyers' first Cup win.

Boucher quickly made his name in the first round in 2000, facing the Buffalo Sabres and Dominik Hasek, who had won the Vezina in 5 of the past 6 years. Boucher allowed seven goals in regulation in the series, including a shutout in Game 3 in Buffalo that gave the Flyers a 3-0 series lead. The Sabres won only once, a 3-2 overtime win in Game 4.

He was nearly equally splendid in a 4-2 series win against Pittsburgh, the centerpiece of which was the 2-1, five-overtime decision in Game 4 in which he played 152 minutes and stopped 57 shots. That evened the series, swung the momentum - it was a second straight OT win - and helped the Flyers win the next two.

Boucher was extremely self-deprecating after that game. He remains so.

"You appreciate it, but you don't make too much of it," Boucher said. "It can overwhelm you. You keep things very simple. If you try and complicate things, who knows what can happen? You lose momentum, it can be over."

Biron, 30, knows that:

"Sometimes in the regular season you might think, 'This feels great.' You're in the middle of a game and you say, 'Oh I've got it.'

"Well, in the playoffs it doesn't matter if you've made three or four big saves in the second period. You can't let yourself think, 'Tonight is special.' Because it can turn on you really, really quick. And in the playoffs, that's the last thing you want."

Remarkably, Boucher and Hextall knew that as rookies.

"The problem when you're young," said Parent, "is that, if you ever break down, it makes it difficult to bounce back."

Parent believes that was part of the problem with 20-year-old Canadiens rookie goaltender Carey Price, who gave up five goals in consecutive games to the Bruins in the first round. Then, against the Flyers, Price seemed to unravel. He allowed four goals in Game 2 and three more in the first two periods of Game 3, getting benched for the final period of that game and the Game 4 loss. He got the start in Game 5 . . . and gave up five goals.

"Just because Biron has a bad game or a bad stretch, he doesn't question himself as a goalie," Parent said.

"Actually, in the playoffs, it's easier to start to focus on the next game, because of the heightened importance of that next game," Hextall said. "It's easier to get over."

Especially if you don't fully recognize the magnitude of the moment.

"I couldn't believe I was even playing as a rookie," said Boucher. "Look how long Marty's had to wait to get there."

It had been nine seasons; 316 games. This heat has been building. Now, he just wants to keep it steady.

"After a game sometimes you'll sit back and say tonight was a special game. But, by the time you've said that, it's over and you're already thinking about what's next," Biron said. "You savor moments. But you don't have that time to dwell on it. You enjoy it, flip the page, and move on." *

Daily News columnist Sam Donnellon contributed to this story.