Flyers Fight Back on Broad Street

It didn't take long for Jeff Carter to atone for his critical miss in Game Two.

Just three minutes into the game, and with the Penguins starting the game with a bang, Jeff Carter was able to swoop into the offensive zone, take a Joffrey Lupul drop pass, dangle Bill Guerin (who at this point in his career is kind of like a pylon with a stick), and make a sweet deke to the backhand to put his team up 1-0.

One Mike Richards power-play goal later, and the home fans were flying high.

But the Penguins were able to fight back, aided by their two big guns. Evgeni Malkin was able to slide home a great pass by Ruslan Fedotenko after an excellent forecheck by Maxime Talbot at the end of the first. Then, right off the second period opening draw, Crosby made a great play to set-up Rob Scuderi for a point shot that tied the contest at two.

Continuing with the theme of redemption, Claude Giroux, who took an atrocious penalty to put his team down two men in overtime in Game Two, was able to take over the game in the second period. He first registered on a pass from Danny Briere (2 assists), and then put forth an excellent effort while shorthanded to set-up Simon Gagne for what amounted to be the game winning goal.

Richards also got off the snide, playing a superb overall game and breaking up countless plays in the Philadelphia defensive zone (rumor has it he will also be rewarded with a rub n' a tug courtesy of Pierre McGuire as an after game treat).

Credit John Stevens for switching up his line-matches, putting Carter against Crosby and Richards against Malkin. Even though they didn't shut them down (Crosby and Malkin both had quality games), the match-ups did produce much better results for the Flyers offensively.

The Penguins received great efforts from Crosby (2 assists) and Malkin (2 goals), but their overall team defense was ugly. Too many break-downs and shotty goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury isn't the recipe for playoff success.

Chalk this entertaining game up as a much needed 'W' for the Flyers. If they continute to get strong efforts from all four lines, especially the Briere and Giroux unit, their outlook looks promising...