Crazy Eights have Flyers on cusp of history

by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor

Back in the days when things weren't so bright for the Philadelphia Flyers, they at least had an attraction to cling to, in their offense-heavy top line of Mark Recchi, Eric Lindros and Brent Fedyk.

The trio were together for just two seasons, 1992 to 1994, providing the only consistent punch those playoff averse teams under Bill Dineen and Terry Simpson had, boasting a T-shirt worthy nickname: Crazy Eights.

That's because Recchi wore No. 8, Fedyk was No. 18, and Lindros was No. 88, of course. They combined for 499 points, but no postseason, no publicity.

It's a reference so obscure, in a down era for the franchise, that you'd be hard pressed to find pictures on the internet featuring all three together -- unlike that of the Legion of Doom which popped up a year later.

Flash forward to 2012, where an obscure statistic is about to give the Orange and Black a share of history.

Only three times previously has the franchise recorded a four-game sweep: the 1974 and 1975 quarterfinals (Atlanta and Toronto) and the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals over the defending-champion New York Rangers.

But the Flyers have never been this close to shutting the door on a playoff opponent with such an intense burst of offense.

There have been only seven occasions where Philadelphia has scored at least eight goals in one playoff game, and the first five all took place between 1981 and 1989 -- the victims were, in order: Islanders (1980 Stanley Cup Finals, Game 2), Nordiques (1981 Preliminary Game 2), Flames (1981 Quarterfinal Game 5), Rangers (1987 Patrick Semifinal Game 2) and Capitals (1989 Patrick Semifinal Game 5).

The other two were Friday and Sunday, respectively.

In the contest following those outbursts, the Flyers have gone 4-2 -- counting the current series -- winning the last four times.

Additionally, Peter Laviolette's high-octane charges have not only set a club record for goals through the first three games of any series, but also through four games, and the fourth hasn't even happened yet.

At the current pace of 6.66 goals-per-game, that would also shatter the previous record for most average tallies through one best-of-seven playoff set while also smashing the mark for most total scores (theoretically 46.66).

The only series which comes close was the 1980 Semifinal against the Minnesota North Stars, where the team that put together "The Streak" hammered out 27 goals in a five-game decision for a robust 5.4 GFA. Included in that set were two wins where the scoring topped out at seven (7-0 in Game 2 and 7-3 in Game 5) plus a 6-5 defeat.

The 1976 quarterfinal round mash-up between the Flyers and Maple Leafs saw Fred Shero's Bullies put their fists down long enough to light the lamp a team-record 33 times in a 7-game series triumph. In 1989, Philly scored 31 times while also taking a 7-gamer from the Mario Lemieux/Paul Coffey-fueled Penguins.

So this triple threat ain't bad for a ragtag bunch of veterans and kids, backed by a goaltender with an apparent husky fetish and his head permanently in the cosmos.

Jagr gets milestone OT winner, Flyers escape Jets

by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor

If Queen Elizabeth II had been looking down from the rafters of the MTS Centre as she had for so many years at the Winnipeg Arena, Her Majesty surely would have approved of such a heart-stopping matchup.

Jaromir Jagr's tally with 43.6 seconds left in overtime -- his NHL record 16th career marker beyond regulation -- spoiled a 50-save performance by Ondrej Pavelec and sent Philadelphia past Winnipeg by a 5-4 count on Tuesday.

Wayne Simmonds, Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux all posted a goal and one assist for the Flyers, who avoided a season sweep and won their second game in three thanks to a season-high in shots on net.

In fact, the onslaught matched the club record for most shots in one road game, after a 55-shot effort in a 4-3 OT win at Boston on March 1, 2007.

"We have four lines and they can all score goals. You have to make the other team tired because every line has a chance to score," Jagr said of the Orange and Black, who have tallied an NHL-best 198 times this season, three better than Vancouver. "We switched a lot on the fly because of injuries, but we can go back to the way it was now. It doesn't matter how many they score against us because we know we can score a lot."

Ilya Bryzgalov was solid enough, making 22 saves for his second victory in three starts. He seemed unrattled by the enemy fan base chanting his name throughout.

It was a fine opening salvo for a four-game road swing that continues on Thursday in Edmonton, something which head coach Peter Laviolette praised:

"I’m really proud that the guys kept coming and pumping,” he said. “It was one of those gutsy efforts that you look back on and that might have been one of our best, toughest, wins of the year. You know, we kept fighting and kept pushing to get those two points.”

Andrew Ladd netted a pair of goals and Tim Stapleton added three helpers for the Jets, whose three game win streak came to an end.

Pavelec tied a career-high for saves in defeat. He also stopped 50 in a 3-1 win at Ottawa on October 31, 2009.

The 24-year-old Czech, born in the same town (Kladno) as Jagr, preserved a one-goal margin with the save of the year -- coming across his crease and diving to make a glove stop on Jakub Voracek inside of eight minutes to play on a Philadelphia advantage. He also did the splits to record a sprawling stop on Simmonds seconds later at the opposite post.

Bryzgalov was pulled for an extra skater with just over a minute remaining, and after almost an entire shift worth of patience in the neutral zone, James van Riemsdyk decided to take matters into his own hands. He flew up the left-wing side, cut to the net and his centering feed found its way to Simmonds for a successful redirect in front 9.7 seconds to play.

On the winner, Danny Briere emerged from a battle behind the net with the puck and wheeled around for a dish into the slot. Jagr did the rest, beating a Jets defenseman and his countryman to the left post.

"Yes, I'm disappointed. I'm happy we got the point. Pavelec was by far the best player on the ice," said Jets head coach Claude Noel. "We might not have gotten a point if not for him. Did we deserve to get two? You can be the judge of that."

It looked like another long night in Manitoba's capital for the visitors, when Dustin Byfuglien slipped a right-point blast between Bryzgalov's pads on a power play with 7:29 left in the first period.

Giroux evened the score a little over three minutes later on a high backhander from the left side, then Hartnell put the Flyers up 2-1 on the advantage with 1:09 played in the second.

Ladd drew the hosts even during another power play on a shot in close at the 7:52 mark, then gave the Jets a one-goal edge just over a minute later on a backhander from just outside the crease.

Max Talbot then followed up a blocked Andrej Meszaros' point drive and beat Pavelec for a 3-3 game at 11:14.

Brayden Schenn even got in on the crease action early in the final period, as he made twin stops seconds apart on Bryan Little and Ladd with Bryzgalov out of position.

That didn't change fortune much when Winnipeg added its third power-play score of the contest to take a 4-3 lead at 4:57 of the third. Bryzgalov looked foolish when he stabbed at Evander Kane's floater from below the right circle with his glove and missed.

Notes: Philly improved to 12-15-2 when giving up the game's first goal...Pavelec's previous season-high in saves was 39, accomplished on November 8 at Buffalo and December 6 against Boston and Hartnell's tally was his league-best 14th on the power play, one better than Pittsburgh's James Neal...Ladd has scored three times in the last two games following a 13-game goal drought...The last time a team based in Winnipeg swept the Flyers was 1984-85, when the original Jets won all three of that season's matchups...Philadelphia hasn't lost consecutive games in Manitoba's capital since dropping four in a row from November of 1983 to December of 1985...Jagr had been tied with Mats Sundin, Patrik Elias and Sergei Fedorov for overtime heroics...Little added two assists in the setback...Tuesday's win marked the first time since 1984-85 that the Flyers unloaded 48-or-more shots on one club twice in one season, having done it against the Vancouver Canucks (58 shots in a 13-2 win on 10/18/84 and 50 in a 7-4 win on 12/28/84)...Philly registered 48 in a 9-8 home loss on October 27...Giroux recorded a career high 10 shots on goal...The clubs combined for 39 goals in the four-game season set.

Additional notes on Saturday's collapse

Atlanta 5, Philadelphia 4 (OT).

Ville Leino's hat first career trick was erased by the Thrashers scoring five of the final six goals of the contest.

In the history between the two clubs, it's the second time in 5 1/2 years that Atlanta has stunned the Orange and Black with a late comeback.

On November 18, 2005, the Flyers led 5-3 with under two minutes left in regulation, only to see Peter Bondra and Patrik Stefan score 1:43 apart to send the game to overtime. Greg DeVries eventually won it at the 3:05 mark of OT for the Thrashers.

According to the Associated Press, Saturday's late-game meltdown maked the first time since November 21, 1987 that the Flyers suffered such a fate. In that game, against the New York Islanders at the Spectrum, Philly led 4-1 after two but gave up five in the third. Randy Wood and Mikko Makela each tallied twice in that burst.

Wendell Young was left in for five of the six, with an empty-netter sealing that part of history.

History in the Hub: Flyers take series with epic comeback

by Bob Herpen
The Phanatic Magazine

Simon Gagne registered the game-deciding power- play goal with 7:08 left in regulation as the Philadelphia Flyers etched their names in the NHL record book with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Philadelphia, which stared down the barrel of a three-games-to-none series deficit, rallied back to win the final four games of the set and became the first team since the 1975 New York Islanders to win a postseason series when trailing 3-0.

Only two other teams in professional sports have rallied to win despite facing such a deficit -- the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 2004 Boston Red Sox.

The Flyers clinched their trip to the conference finals by doing it the hard way, as they climbed back from a 3-0 first-period hole. James van Riemsdyk, Scott Hartnell and Danny Briere all scored to erase Boston's advantage.

A victory for the ages, it also marked the first time Philly rallied from a three-goal margin to win in a series-clinching contest since it took the 1974 quarterfinals against the Atlanta Flames with an overtime decision in Game 4.

Ville Leino added a pair of assists for the seventh-seeded Flyers, who open up the next round at home on Sunday against the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens.

It will mark the first time since the current playoff format was adopted in 1994 that the lowest two seeds in either conference will vie for a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Michael Leighton was beaten three times in the opening period but finished with 22 stops for Philadelphia, which improved to 8-6 all-time in Game 7s and has won its last two ultimate games on the road.

Milan Lucic tallied twice and Michael Ryder once for the Bruins, who failed in their quest to reach the conference finals for the first time since 1992 in a failure of epic proportions.

Tuukka Rask allowed four goals on 27 shots in defeat for Boston, which suffered the loss one year to the day of a 3-2 overtime setback against Carolina in a Game 7 at home in the Eastern semis.

Gagne registered his fourth goal of the postseason on a Flyers advantage, thanks to a bench minor penalty on the Bruins for too many men on the ice. That came with 8:50 to play in regulation.

Leino cycled the puck behind the Boston net and fed to Mike Richards in the right circle. His intended centering pass deflected off a body in front, where Gagne gathered and flicked it high into the net inside the left post to give the visitors a 4-3 advantage.

Leighton was not seriously tested for the remainder of the contest, but was the beneficiary of a shot that skittered off the post with six minutes left. He also stymied Lucic's bid for the hat trick on a quick pad save with 3:50 to play.

Expert forechecking pressure kept the puck deep in the Bruins' zone and Rask was not able to get to the bench for an extra attacker until 1:07 remained. The Flyers cleared the zone three times down the stretch and the home team was powerless to prevent the inevitable.

Things looked significantly brighter for Boston in the early going.

The Bruins were awarded the game's first power play and made the Flyers pay only eight seconds into it when Ryder one-timed the rebound of a Zdeno Chara shot past Leighton at the right post at 5:27.

It was 2-0 at 9:02 on the following Boston advantage. Dennis Wideman carried down the right wing and when Flyers defenseman Matt Carle failed to check him, he was able to slip away and dish across for Lucic for a tap-in from the left side.

Despite almost a minute of offensive pressure from Philly with six minutes left in the first period, the Bruins broke out on an odd-man rush which saw Lucic finish off a 2-on-1 by pumping a shot through Leighton's pads at 14:10 for a 3-0 contest.

Van Riemsdyk, though, picked up his first career playoff tally with 2:48 to play in the first as his shot trickled through Rask from the slot.

Hartnell cut the Flyers' deficit to 3-2 at 2:49 of the second period, when he followed up a spinning chance by Leino and lifted a precision backhander over a prone Rask and under the crossbar from a sharp angle.

Briere then knotted the game at 8:39, when he circled behind the Bruins' net from right to left and banked a shot off the stick and backside of defenseman Matt Hunwick and into a half-open cage.

A tense moment occurred with just over five minutes to play, when a puck that sailed high in the air above Rask settled in the crease amidst a scrum of players.

The initial call on the ice was no goal, and although one replay seemed to show the disc on edge and over the goal line, a lengthy review determined the shot was not successful. Despite the setback, the teams were knotted, 3-3, after two periods. 

Philadelphia nearly jumped out to the lead roughly four minutes into the third, but Chris Pronger's blistering point drive clanged off the crossbar.

NOTES: Gagne has posted all four of his goals in the last four games...Lucic recorded his first career multi-goal playoff game...Chara, the Bruins' captain, fell to 0-5 in Game 7s...The Flyers improved to 3-3 all-time on road in Game 7s, while the Bruins fell to 9-6 all-time at home in Game 7s...Boston also fell to 9-10 overall in Game 7s, and have failed in their last four tests in this situation, having not won since defeating Montreal to win a 1994 Eastern Conference quarterfinal series...Philadelphia has now won three of the five postseason series with Boston...The Flyers and Canadiens last played for a trip to the Cup Finals in 1989, a series which saw Montreal advance with a six-game triumph...The Flyers took a six-game decision in the 1987 Wales Conference finals from the Habs who were then the defending Cup champions.