by Bob Herpen
The Phanatic Magazine
Simon Gagne's tally at the 14:40 mark of overtime helped the Philadelphia Flyers stave off elimination and take a 5-4 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series at Wachovia Center.
Gagne, who returned after missing four games over more than two weeks after a suffering fractured foot while blocking a shot, was alone at the right post to deflect a Matt Carle dish into the net for the game-winner.
Chris Pronger, Claude Giroux and Danny Briere each registered a goal and one assist for the Flyers, who had to battle through Mark Recchi's tying goal in the final minute of regulation along with a short-handed situation earlier in the extra session to avoid being swept. Philadelphia hadn't suffered a four-game series loss since the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals to Detroit.
Carle notched a career playoff-best four assists and Brian Boucher stopped 33 shots, including nine in the OT period, for the win.
Recchi notched a pair of goals, while Milan Lucic and Michael Ryder also tallied for the Bruins, who could have reached the conference finals for the first time since 1992 with a win.
Patrice Bergeron and Dennis Wideman contributed two assists apiece and Tuukka Rask made 29 saves in defeat.
Game 5 returns to Boston on Monday.
Gagne's heroics almost never came to be, if not for a pair of careless plays from one of his teammates.
Inside of a minute left in regulation, a backhanded clear by Philly forward Darroll Powe rolled well wide of the empty net resulting in an icing call. The Bruins won the resulting faceoff and kept the puck in the zone long enough for Bergeron to zip a pass across to Recchi, for a blistering shot high to the short side to tie the game 4-4 with 31.5 ticks left.
Powe also took a boarding penalty at the 10:36 mark of overtime, for his illegal run on Boston center Marc Savard, but the Bruins couldn't push one past Boucher.
Giroux failed to hit the net on a breakaway chance a little more than two minutes into the contest, and the Flyers also failed to click on a power-play chance with more than eight minutes played.
Boston took the lead with 4:23 left in the first as Recchi followed behind an unsuccessful chance by Bergeron and lifted the rebound over Boucher.
The home team kept plugging away until Briere beat Rask low to the far side from the right circle with 53.3 seconds to play in the period.
Pronger's blast from the point off a dish from Carle sizzled through traffic and gave the Flyers a 2-1 edge at 4:28 of the second period, then Scott Hartnell kicked at a loose puck under Rask for a Giroux tip-in at 8:35.
Boucher's mishandling of a dump-in resulted in Ryder being credited with Boston's second goal at 10:56 and the visitors got within one.
The Bruins evened the game with a power-play score at 3:49 of the third period, as Lucic cruised into the slot and tipped home a Wideman shot.
Desperately trying to gain separation, the Flyers took a one-goal lead with 5:40 left in regulation, as Pronger's floater from the point changed direction off Ville Leino's stick and sailed by Rask.
NOTES: The score was Gagne's first of the 2010 playoffs, and proved to be his first postseason game-winner since Game 3 of last year's first-round series with Pittsburgh...It also was Gagne's first OT playoff tally since Game 6 of the 2004 Eastern finals against Tampa Bay...This was Recchi's first multi-goal game in the current postseason and first since scoring twice in Game 7 of an Eastern semifinal game against Toronto in 2003 when he played for Philadelphia...For Leino, it was his third goal since coming to the Flyers in early March and his first-career playoff tally.
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