Flyers fall to Flames after controversial call on Pronger

SEAN AVERY DANCED on Broadway.

Chris Pronger waved on Broad Street.

Somehow, Pronger - hockey's ultimate tough guy - ended up grouped in the same category yesterday with hockey's ultimate diva thanks to what Pronger termed as a nonchalant wave of the arm.

Because of Avery's actions on April 13, 2008 - when he turned around to face Marty Brodeur and dance in front of Brodeur to stir up a commotion, distract him and screen him - the "Avery rule" was added to Rule 75 of the NHL's definition of unsportsmanlike conduct.

With only 1 minute, 35 seconds left in overtime of the Flyers' annual Black Friday matinee, Mike Richards appeared to net what would be the game-winner when he flicked a high-arching wrist shot past an unsuspecting Miikka Kiprusoff.

That was until Ghislain Hebert - the referee responsible for all nine of the contest's penalties - decided Pronger unfairly distracted Kiprusoff in an unsportsmanlike fashion and disallowed the goal.

The result: a 3-2 shootout victory for Calgary, as Hebert skated off the ice to boos that echoed for the remaining 95 seconds of overtime. The Flames, winners for only the third time in 13 games, stole the extra point from the Flyers, who now trail Washington by one point for the overall lead in the NHL.

Richards said it was a set play for the Flyers, who occasionally park Pronger's beastly 6-6 frame in front of the net to wreak havoc, to have Pronger motion for the puck when he has room to work.

Pronger, meanwhile, didn't deny he was trying to distract Kiprusoff. Pronger's argument was that Hebert should have blown the play dead when the shenanigans started instead of after the puck hit the twine.

"The puck went into the net," Pronger said. "That was 5 seconds before the puck went into the net. I wasn't turned around at him, waving in his face. I was right here with my arm out, put my arm back on my stick, and the puck went into the net.

"It's infuriating. It should've been two points instead of the one. There's no question about it. All you have to do is watch the replay."

While Pronger did not turn his back to the play like Avery, the replay clearly shows Pronger glancing back at Kiprusoff to track his motion while Pronger's outstretched hand and stick are in the vicinity of Kiprusoff's mask.

Hebert and senior official Don VanMassenhoven declined to give an explanation to a pool reporter after the game.

"Because they knew they screwed it up," Pronger said.

Kiprusoff said he was having trouble seeing the puck behind Pronger.

"Maybe the call was a little late," Kiprusoff said. "But I know the referee saw it. It was a good call. He's a big guy, and it's hard to try to find the puck behind him, but I think it's the right call."

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said Pronger's intent differed from Avery's in that he was still focusing on the play at the perimeter of the power play.

"If you're going to call that, then I guess you call it right away, in my opinion, but certainly not the intent of the rule to when Sean Avery was doing it a few years back," Laviolette said. "I know why there is a rule that got put in place for that, but Chris Pronger is looking out at the shot, like it was going to be called or should have been called right away and not 3 or 4 seconds afterward."

Richards' disputed shot would have not only given the Flyers their fourth straight win, but would have also snapped a 1-for-31 (3 percent) drought on the power play, dating to their shootout win last Saturday.

The Flyers' power play was 14-for-45 (31 percent) in the 10 games before going powerless.

"Power plays go in cycles at times," Laviolette said. "Right now, we're not doing the little things. We're losing some battles. Tonight, I think it was more of a reflection of our five-on-five play, we didn't generate a whole lot."

The only line that seemed to generate consistent pressure on Kiprusoff was Richards' line with Andreas Nodl and James van Riemsdyk, who scored for the third time in three games after going his first 17 without a goal. It is the first three-game goal streak of his career. But neither that nor Nik Zherdev's dazzling eighth goal of the season was enough for the Flyers, who coughed up two separate one-goal leads.

And Pronger wasn't ready to make any excuses.

"We can sit here and talk how we should've got the two points, the goal should've counted. It didn't," Pronger said. "I'm not going to get into a referee standoff. They have a hard enough job without me breathing down their necks. We didn't play our best game."

"It would have been nice to get it," Richards said. "But, at the same time, I didn't think we played well enough to deserve it. We were just hanging around and didn't do a whole lot of great things. Our power play didn't generate enough offense, nor momentum throughout the hockey game. We didn't skate well enough to win."

The Flyers lost for the first time (13-0-0) after leading through two periods . . . Sergei Bobrovsky lost his first career regular-season shootout, despite stopping 28 of 30 shots. He stoned Alex Tanguay in the shootout, but was solved by Niklas Hagman and Rene Bourque . . . Curtis Glencross' goal was the 10,000th goal in Flames franchise history . . . Scott Hartnell's four-game point streak was snapped . . . The crowd of 19,872, was the largest pre-December home crowd in Flyers history. *

For more news and analysis, read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at

http://go.philly.com/frequentflyers. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/DNFlyers.