Bouchergame1boston

 This is what happens when you play half a game. The Flyers, after an 8 day layoff, played a lifeless first period where they fell behind 2-0 on preventable goals from Steve Begin and Patrice Bergeron. Although the Flyers woke up and played a decent second and third periods, a very different team showed up for an overtime period where it felt like the Flyers were shorthanded the entire time. You can't win a playoff game when you only show up for two of the four periods.

Ryan Parent (not a typo) put the Flyers on the board on a slapshot from the blue line with 12 minutes to go in the second.  Just a few short minutes later, Miroslav Satan netted a powerplay goal to give the Bruins their two goal lead back. The Flyers contested that the goal was a "pick play" with Michael Ryder interfering with Blair Betts. However, if you watched the game on NBC, Pierre McGuire (possibly the most annoying hockey analyst ever) insisted that the play was clean. Chris Pronger rifled a shot under the right arm of Tuukka Rask on the powerplay with a few minutes left in the second to pull the Flyers within one again.

    7 minutes into the third, David Krejci beat Boucher one-on-one in front of the net to pull the B's ahead 4-2. Although he should have never been alone in front, Boucher looked pretty silly as he flopped around on the ice. The Flyers then pulled off an impressive road comeback – Mike Richards pulled the Flyers to within one on the powerplay, and then Danny Briere tied the game with 4 minutes left burying his own rebound. Despite scoring the tying goal, Briere was on the ice for 3 of the Bruins' goals, and he finished the game with a minus 2.

    Although it seemed like the Flyers had all the momentum, the team simply did not show up for overtime, with the exception of Brian Boucher (who finished the game with 41 saves). Boucher made 14 spectacular saves, many of which came in the opening two minutes of the frame, to keep the game going. Marc Savard finally beat Boucher on a heavy slapshot to win it for Boston by a final score of 5-4 in his first game back from a concussion on the hit from Matt Cooke. The Flyers best chance in overtime came on a Dan Carcillo breakaway, but Rask was up to the task.

    While it was encouraging to see the Flyers mount a comeback, it was a game that the Flyers could have won. It's somewhat understandable that the Flyers played a lackluster first period after an extended layoff, but there is no explanation for not having their legs in overtime. When the Flyers play passively, they're done nine out of ten times. And that's exactly how they played in overtime yesterday.

    The good thing: the Flyers only need to win one game in Boston to take home ice advantage. Although it wouldn't be impossible to come back from being down 2-0 in the series, the Flyers will make it difficult on themselves to advance if they lose again tomorrow night.