Let the battle of Pennsylvania commence!!!!

[House of Steel]

I am so pumped and ready for Game 4. I hope we can finish them off in a sweep tonight. We are playing so well and with all of our cylinders firing, we can make a strong case to be the favorites to win the Stanley Cup. I pray to God this could very well happen.

GO PENS!!!

[twominuteminor]

With eye healing, Flyers' Coburn could return for Game 4.

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn practiced Wednesday and could play in Game 4 of of the Eastern Conference finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.

Coburn missed Game 3 because his left eye was swollen shut after being hit by a puck in Game 2. The eye was partially open on Tuesday.

"We'll see how it feels [tomorrow]; I had a good workout," Coburn told the Philadelphia Inquier. "I feel a little bit tired having been off a few days."

The puck opened a gash that bled profusely when Coburn fell to the ice in Game 2. It required more than 50 stitches to close. Coburn said he wasn't scared because he felt the puck hit bone and not his eye.

When he returns, Coburn said he will wear a shield to protect the area. He wasn't sure if he would've avoided injury had he worn a visor.

SOURCE

Yeah...hitting bone...no fears...yuck! Sorry, my stomach doesn't handle those things well. Glad he's okay tho'.

[SteeleRED]

Yikes! Not exactly the performance hoped for: out-of-kilter in the first period, a little more lively in the second, a dominating third, but no ability to get that last "killer shot" past Biron.

And now we come back home, up 3-1 but not exactly diminishing their confidence. And boy, were they ever chippy, especially at the end. Wish Sid had avoided that punk Richards at the end: no need to fire those idiots up even more.

[House of Steel]

NOt the way I wanted to end a good day with, a Pens Loss. .

[twominuteminor]

Tyler Kennedy, Hal Gill, Maxime Talbot & Rob Scuderi all celebrate teammate Jordan Staal's goal at 3:16 in the third period as classy Flyer fans look on.


Sidney Crosby has possession of the puck & is chased by Joffrey Lupul during the third period of game four tonight.


Derian Hatcher gets a stick into Marc-Andre Fleury's face during the first period action tonight.


Vaclav Prospal sprawls on top of Ryan Malone during second period action tonight.


Ryan Parent pushes Sidney Crosby during the third period of tonights game. This seemed to be the Flyers MO for the win this evening.

Scoring Summary:

1st Period
Philadelphia 8:27, Joffrey Lupul 3 (Scott Hartnell, Ryan Parent)
Philadelphia 11:48, Daniel Briere 9 (power play) (Randy Jones, Scott Hartnell)
Philadelphia 18:50, Jeff Carter 6 (power play) (R.J. Umberger, Jaroslav Modry)

2nd Period
None

3rd Period
Pittsburgh 3:16, Jordan Staal 4 (Tyler Kennedy, Max Talbot)
Pittsburgh 14:11, Jordan Staal 5 (Tyler Kennedy, Max Talbot)
Philadelphia 19:27, Joffrey Lupul 4 (empty net) (Scott Hartnell)

Penalty Summary:

1st Period
Philadelphia tripping - 2 min 5:57, D. Briere
Pittsburgh holding - 2 min 9:51, S. Gonchar
Pittsburgh clipping - 2 min 12:51, K. Letang
Pittsburgh roughing - 2 min 14:01, S. Gonchar
Pittsburgh roughing - 2 min 14:01, M. Talbot
Philadelphia roughing - 2 min 14:01, S. Hartnell
Philadelphia roughing - 2 min 14:01, M. Richards
Pittsburgh roughing - 2 min 17:10, B. Orpik

2nd Period
Philadelphia roughing - 2 min 4:42, S. Upshall
Pittsburgh roughing - 2 min 4:42, P. Sykora
Philadelphia tripping - 2 min 14:17, J. Carter
Pittsburgh slashing - 2 min 18:25, P. Sykora

3rd Period
Philadelphia charging - 2 min 19:37, S. Upshall
Philadelphia holding - 2 min 19:37, D. Hatcher
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 19:37, D. Hatcher
Pittsburgh roughing - 2 min 19:45, R. Malone
Pittsburgh fighting - 5 min 19:45, R. Malone
Philadelphia slashing - 2 min 19:45, M. Richards

Goalies:
M. Fleury 33 shots, 30 saves,
M. Biron 38 shots, 36 saves.

Game Summary:

Tonight we encountered an unexpected detour along the PA turnpike to the Cup. That smooth ride through 12 playoff games got a bit bumpier when the Flyers staved off elimination tonight, forcing a Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Just as they did after taking a 3-0 lead over the Rangers in the second round, the Pens were beaten on the road in Game 4. They wrapped up that series at home in its next chance, shaking off its only other loss in the playoffs (11-2), so there's nothing saying they can't duplicate that here.

The Flyers followed the lead set Wednesday by the Dallas Stars, who stayed alive in the Western Conference finals by avoiding a sweep at the hands of the Red Wings.

Tonight the Flyers set the tone early on & it was Flyers all the way to the third period. They had been swept the five other times they trailed 3-0.

The Pens are 7-0 in the playoffs at home & have won 15 straight & they defeated the Flyers 4-2 at home in the first two games of the series.

Joffrey Lupul got things going for the Flyers 8:27 in, & Danny Briere & Jeff Carter scored the Flyer’s second & third power-play goals of the series 7:02 apart to make it 3-0 in the first period.

Martin Biron showed the form that backstopped series wins over the Caps & top-seeded Montreal in making 36 saves. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 30 shots for the Pens.

Jordan Staal, who returned to the team following a one-day absence after the death of his grandfather, spoiled Biron’s shutout bid with 16:44 left. He scored again with 5:49 remaining to transform Wacko Center from joyous to nervous.

Lupul however, calmed the fears with an empty-net goal with 32.3 seconds left.

After trailing 11-4 on the shot clock midway through the first, the Flyers broke out against the very sharp Fleury & finished the frame with a 17-13 edge.

It was a very different Flyers team the Pens faced tonight. In Tuesday’s 4-1 loss, Philly managed only eight shots through two periods. Tonight they had 26 in the first 40 minutes.

Once they got the ever-elusive lead, the Flyers looked a little like the Pens as they tried to clog up the neutral zone. The Pens have been doing that to perfection in this series, allowing only 22 goals before tonights game. Fleury entered the game with a 1.74 goals-against average, but it took a beating early.

In a period the Flyers had been waiting four games to unleash, Philly scored three times to take control for the first time in the series. After netting five goals in falling into an 0-3 hole, the Flyers struck for three in a span of 10:23.
Not bad for a club that hadn’t been in front since the first period of Game 1, a lead that lasted only 1:21.

After going 1-for-9 on the power play in the first three games, the unit that was the NHL’s second-best during the regular season started to click. It took time for the Flyers to overcome the loss of Kimmo Timonen & Braydon Coburn, but overcome they did.

Other action - Randy Jones fired a shot as he glided along the blue line, & the puck bounced off Fleury into the slot. Then Briere squeezed his way past 6-foot-7 Hal Gill & swept in a rebound from his knees at 11:48.

Carter also scored from in close, banging away at a rebound of R.J. Umberger’s shot & finally knocking it past Fleury with 1:10 left in the period.

Philadelphia was successful in its first game with the new lines. In an attempt to spark the offense, coach John Stevens moved Mike Richards up to play with Briere & dropped down slumping forward Vinny Prospal. It was obviously a recipe for success. Tonight anyway.

Notes:

The Pens were held without a power-play goal for just the third time in the playoffs. They are 1-2 in those games. Coburn reported earlier as returning for tonights game, wasn’t healed enough from a swollen eye to return, but could definitely be back for Game 5. Gary Roberts missed his second straight game with pneumonia. He is day to day. The Pens lost 3-0 to the Rangers in their only other postseason defeat.

[twominuteminor]

“No battle of any importance can be won without enthusiasm”

Ugh! I still have a bad taste in my mouth from that one. I guess we should have expected no less tho', right? The Flyers were literally fighting for their hockey lives & fighting is what they do best.
But we move on to Sunday now, game five & home. Nice friendly home - home under the dome.

Let's not forget it's an afternoon game....Steele? ~*prod*~ 3:00 pm EDT

[CarolinaPen]

I am not too concerned about the loss last night. I think everyone has been spoiled with the playoffs so far. Losing isn't a bad thing and should help keep the team from being too overconfident...which is exactly how they looked last night!

I think it was just one of those nights that happen. The Flyers played well and got the bounces for a change in this series. I can deal with that.

I fully expect the Pens to come out on fire Sunday and really take it to the Flyers to close out the series. I am looking for a big win and hopefully the reemergence of Malkin.

[twominuteminor]

Originally Posted by CarolinaPen

I am not too concerned about the loss last night. I think everyone has been spoiled with the playoffs so far. Losing isn't a bad thing and should help keep the team from being too overconfident...which is exactly how they looked last night!

I think it was just one of those nights that happen. The Flyers played well and got the bounces for a change in this series. I can deal with that.

I fully expect the Pens to come out on fire Sunday and really take it to the Flyers to close out the series. I am looking for a big win and hopefully the reemergence of Malkin.

I'm not really either. It would have been nice to have a second sweep - looks good on the resume - but taking the series will be much sweeter at home if it happens. Gosh, where's Mike Lange when you need him? LOL!

I'm almost tempted to listen to him on radio while watching, just so I can hear that line one more time!!!Oh, that's such a thing to have stored in memory!

"You can spit shine your shoes, the Pens are going dancing with Lord Stanley."
"Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley, bring me the brandy."

Or who knows? He may have a new one. Either way, his voice will stick with me.

[Squeaky]

A good third dperiod from the Pens. About time Staal's line played a bigger part--I was expecting them to be able to put points up in this series before now...

Philly finally did what I expected them to do earlier, and what i claimed would give them more success--put multiple bodies in front of Fluery and throw everything at the net.

Now, I will also say I thought our defense looked slow and sluggish in the first--too complacent. They did not play a physical enough game, and got caught flat footed way too much. We were pinned in our own zone so much we couldn't get our offense going.

On the road, loud crowd, I am surprised we made it back into the game as close as we did. That bodes real well for the team. If I were a Flyer I would feel glad to have gotten out of that game without going to overtime--but I did tell my wife when the Pens didn't score in the second period they wouldn't make it all the way back.

But as mentioned I hope the Pens learned one lesson (relearned)--the playoffs are all about intensity and effort. The talent and team levels are so close that it is the level of effort and intensity that will decide who wins. The Pens had it in the third, but not before...

Learn and go forward at home!!

[twominuteminor]

>Learn and go forward at home!!<

Ditto that!