Cartergame4

The Flyers handed the Devils a 4-1 pounding Tuesday night, to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. The win came just minutes before Ryan Madson did the unthinkable, and blew a 3 run lead with 2 outs in the ninth in Atlanta. Anyway, here are some notes from tonight's huge Flyers win:

-Jeff Carter came back to life, scoring 2 goals and adding an assist. The first tied the game at 1 on the powerplay in the second period. Carter skated off the boards towards the slot and fired a snap shot over Brodeur's glove, a traditional Carter move. His second goal gave the Flyers a 4-1 lead midway through the final frame – a Pronger slapshot from the point hit Carter's shin pad, after which he poked in the loose puck. Carter appeared to be in some pain after the goal but finished the remainder of the game. Good to see Carter back!

-Simon Gagne left the game injured late in the second period. After the game, Paul Holmgren would only reveal that it was a "lower body injury." Speculation on CSN postgame was that Gagne blocked a shot and got injured then, but Holmgren would not say. If Gagne can not play on Thursday, expect Ville Leino to enter the lineup. Although Gagne hasn't done much offensively in this series, he has been defensively responsible, an important penalty killer, and checking the Devils tightly. Gagne was also stoned by Brodeur during the second period of tonight's game, which appeared to be a bad omen at the time, but the Flyers eventually broke through.

UPDATE: Tim Panaccio reporting that Gagne suffered a fractured toe.

-Brian Boucher continued to make huge saves. Boooooch has simply outplayed Brodeur in this series. 'nuff said.

-Dan Carcillo scored another goal tonight, albeit one that Brodeur should have stopped. His reaction was again priceless. (His face simply said, "Could this be happening to me"?) He was my predicted "surprise hero" before the series, and he hasn't let me down so far!

-The referees called this game too tightly yet again, as there was a total of 16 powerplays (8 for each team). It's getting to be comical, let the players play!

The series resumes with Game 5 on Thursday at 7 in New Jersey. All I can say is, even though it's a big game, don't expect the same kind of playoff atmosphere we've seen in Philadelphia. It's hard to replicate a playoff atmosphere in a building only half full.