Flyers fight to stay alive

By Dan Di Sciullo

The Flyers were able to post four straight wins last year against the Bruins to become the third team in NHL history to win a series after going down 3-0, but Boston will try to end this best-of-seven series tonight, when it hosts Game 4 at TD Garden.

Philadelphia was a seventh seed last year when it pulled off the amazing comeback against the Bruins, but despite coming into this year's series as the second seed in the East, the Flyers still found themselves in the same situation.

"You have to draw strength from everything you've gone through as a group," Flyers captain Mike Richards said. "It's not the time to point fingers and not the time to get down. It's a time you have to stick together and come together as a group and hopefully, do something special."

Outside of an overtime victory in Game 2, third-seeded Boston has battered the Flyers in this series, taking the opener in Philadelphia by a 7-3 score and notching a 5-1 triumph Wednesday night in Beantown.

Zdeno Chara had two goals and an assist, David Krejci added a goal and two assists and Nathan Horton had a goal and an assist to give Boston the easy victory in Game 3.

The Bruins can exorcise last year's playoff demons tonight in Boston, and can do so with another strong performance from goaltender Tim Thomas, who stopped 37 shots on Wednesday.

"I think we all feel pretty good about our game right now and confident," said Boston forward Daniel Paille, who had a goal in the game. "So the main thing for us is not to get too high and stay focused."

Krejci has been a dominant force for Boston in this series, posting a goal in every game and registering eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) over the three games.

Chara -- Boston's mammoth defenseman -- had gone 19 straight playoff tilts without scoring a goal before Wednesday's outburst. His last postseason tallies also came in a two-goal performance against Buffalo on April 17 of last year.

Chara, a Norris Trophy finalist this year, also helped Boston end its lengthy playoff power-play drought when he notched his second goal on a 5-on-3 situation with 1:22 left in the game. Boston entered Game 3 with no goals on 28 opportunities with the man advantage and is now 1-for-32.

With a win tonight, Boston will reach the conference finals for the first time since 1992, when they were swept by Pittsburgh.

The Flyers found themselves down 2-0 just 63 seconds into Game 3 after Chara and Krejci tallied in the first period. That burst was all Thomas would need to make the lead stand up for the win.

"That was about as good a start as you could ask for, especially on home ice," said Thomas. "It doesn't always work out that way. Definitely helped. It certainly helped from my perspective in goal. That's for sure."

Andrej Meszaros scored the lone goal for the Flyers, who pulled their starting goaltender for the sixth time in 10 playoff games. Philadelphia has used two netminders in all three tilts in this series, although Brian Boucher was pulled for injury reasons in Game 2 before returning to finish the contest.

Boucher started between the pipes on Wednesday and was blitzed for four goals on 20 shots before being pulled just over 15 minutes into the second. Sergei Bobrovsky finished the game in net and stopped 7-of-8 shots.

Bobrovsky is expected to get the start tonight. It would be the Russian rookie's first start since Game 2 of Philadelphia's first-round series against Buffalo.

The Flyers got forward Jeff Carter back in the lineup Wednesday, but defenseman Chris Pronger missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury. Pronger is questionable for this evening's contest as well.

Boston defenseman Adam McQuaid is expected to sit out a second straight tilt after sustaining a neck injury in Game 2.

The Bruins' collapse against the Flyers last year marks the only time they have lost a best-of-seven series after taking the first three games. It's also the only time Philadelphia has won a set when in that situation.

The Flyers haven't been swept since losing the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals to Detroit in four games. Boston's last sweep was against Montreal in the opening round of the 2009 postseason.

Boston is 3-2 on home ice in these playoffs and had a 22-13-6 mark as the host during the regular season. If the Bruins are unable to clinch the series tonight then Game 5 will be played Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia.

The Flyers set a franchise record with 25 road wins during the regular season, posting a 25-11-5 mark away from home. Philly is 2-2 on the road this postseason.

This is the sixth all-time playoff encounter between the Flyers and Bruins. Philadelphia has won three of those series and last year's meeting was the first postseason battle between the clubs since 1978.