Flyers look to turn things around in Boston

By Dan Di Sciullo 

The Philadelphia Flyers will try to avoid falling behind 3-0 to Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinals when they visit the Bruins for tonight's Game 3 at TD Garden.

Of course, the Flyers dropped the first three games of last year's best-of- seven conference semifinal encounter with Boston before posting four straight wins to become the third team in NHL history to win a series after going down 3-0.

Counting last year's collapse against the Flyers, the Bruins have lost seven best-of-seven series after taking the first two games. Philadelphia has a 3-13 record in series that it has trailed two-games-to-none and one of those wins came last year against Boston.

Boston now has a chance to redeem itself for last year's postseason meltdown and take charge of this series with Games 3 and 4 being played on home ice.

The third-seeded Bruins, who will host Game 4 on Friday, had a decent 22-13-6 record on home ice during the regular season and were 2-2 on home ice against Montreal in the opening round. Boston defeated the Canadiens in seven games, and for the first time in club history they overcame a 2-0 deficit to win a series.

"We have to win, we have to go to Boston and win one hockey game," said Philadelphia head coach Peter Laviolette.
After slamming the Flyers by a 7-3 score in Game 1, Boston grabbed a 2-0 lead in the series with Monday's overtime victory at Wells Fargo Center. David Krejci scored the winner at the 14-minute mark of OT and Tim Thomas made 52 saves to help lift the Bruins to the 3-2 victory.

Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn had the puck behind the left side of his net and attempted to wrap it around the boards, but Nathan Horton kept it from going out. From the top of the right circle, he sent it over to the slot and Krejci's one-timer appeared to hit the back pipe.

The goal was initially waved off, but at the next whistle the play was reviewed. Replays showed the puck hit the rear brace of the net before ricocheting back into play.

"He (Horton) picked it up and he made a nice play," said Krejci about the goal. "I wanted to get a good one-timer and it worked. I thought it was in but then they kept playing so I just wanted to finish up on the shift and then the ref took a look at it and it was in."

Chris Kelly and Brad Marchand both had a goal in regulation for the Bruins.

"Yeah, it's great to come in and get the two wins but we are far from done," said Kelly. "Obviously, Montreal did this same thing to us and we know they are going to come hard in Boston."

Krejci, who was injured in last year's Game 3 against Philly and never returned in the series, has torched the Flyers for three goals and two assists in the first two games of this series.

Thomas, meanwhile, was a backup to Tuukka Rask in the 2010 playoffs before regaining his starting job with a stellar 2010-11 campaign. The Vezina Trophy finalist has turned aside 83-of-88 shots sent his way in this series and stopped every one of Philadelphia's 32 shots from the start of the third period until the end of the game on Monday.

Although Boston is just two wins away from reaching the conference finals for the first time since 1992, the Bruins have still yet to record a power-play goal in these playoffs. Boston was 0-for-2 with the man advantage on Monday and has failed to score on 28 power-play chances in nine games.

James van Riemsdyk was Philadelphia's best skater in Game 2, scoring both goals for the Flyers to give him seven tallies in this postseason. He is tied with teammate Danny Briere for the most goals in the playoffs this spring.

"I think it was a great team effort, a good response game from us," said van Riemsdyk. "But unfortunately that doesn't mean much because we didn't win the game."

The Flyers' goaltending situation continued on its tumultuous path through the 2011 postseason in Game 2. Starting netminder Brian Boucher left in the second period with an apparent hand injury, but came back for the third and played the rest of the game. He allowed all three goals on 35 shots while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all six shots he faced in nearly nine minutes of action in the second period.

Boucher had been pulled from Game 1 of this series after allowing five goals on 18 shots, but Laviolette opted to start him in the second games. Boucher is expected to get the call in net again tonight.

Philadelphia played Game 2 without top defenseman Chris Pronger, who sat out with an undisclosed injury. Pronger has played in just three games this postseason after sitting out the last month of the regular season and the first five games the Flyers' opening-round series win over Buffalo.

The Bruins could be without a defenseman of their own tonight, as Adam McQuaid is dealing with a neck sprain suffered in Monday's contest. McQuaid suffered the injury late in the first period when he attempted to check Philadelphia forward Mike Richards near the Boston net. McQuaid had him lined up, but Richards stepped out of the way and McQuaid went crashing into the back boards head-first.

After several minutes on the ice, McQuaid was helped into the locker room. He was then taken to Jefferson Hospital in downtown Philadelphia for evaluation.

McQuaid has three assists and is plus-four in Boston's nine playoff games this year. McQuaid will likely be replaced by veteran Shane Hnidy if he is unable to go tonight.

The second-seeded Flyers are hoping to get Jeff Carter back at some point in this series, and he is questionable for Game 3. Carter, who led Philly with 36 goals in the regular season, suffered a sprained right MCL in Game 4 of the Buffalo series and hasn't played since.

Philadelphia was a seventh seed last year when it pulled off the amazing comeback against the Bruins, and the Flyers went on to win the Eastern Conference title before losing in six games to Chicago in the Stanley Cup Finals. This year, the Flyers are a second seed and entered the postseason as Atlantic Division champions.

Boston has also improved its seeding from a year ago, as the Bruins were a sixth seed in 2010, but gained the third spot in the East after winning the Northeast Division.

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

The Flyers set a franchise record with 25 road wins during the regular season, posting a 25-11-5 mark away from home. Philly was 2-1 in Buffalo in the opening round.