PIT vs PHI Game 1 : Living Up To The Hype

The most talked about series around the NHL was the playoff icebreaker and for all intents and purposes game 1 lived up to the hype.  First period goals from Sidney Crosby, Tyler Kennedy and Pascal Dupuis seemingly had the Flyers and Ilya Bryzgalov on the ropes, but that is all the offense the could manage.

The Flyers began chipping away at the lead when Danny Briere

got behind the Pens D and took a breakaway pass from Brayden Schenn and lifted the puck over Marc-Andre Fleury.  Replays show that the play was offside, but the goal obviously stood and the Flyers were back in the game.  Briere scored again near the midway point of the third and then on the Flyers first power play of the game tied the score courtesy a Schenn tip-in.

That set the stage fro overtime, and it was over relatively quickly as the Flyers completed the comeback when Jakub Voracek tucked home a loose puck from the edge of the crease 2:23 into the extra frame.

The Flyers draw first blood in the series, and in doing so continue their dominance of their divisional rival in the Pens’ own arena.  The Flyers are 7-1 in Pittsburgh since the opening of the Cosul Energy Centre.

The turning point was obviously Briere’s first goal, which was a botched call by the linesmen on the ice.  It was the second controvertial call, as Dupuis’ goal came shortly after an anticipated Pittsburgh icing call was mysterioulsy waved off, so I guess the calls evened out in the end.

It was an intense, hard hitting game that had a little bit of everything, and the refs let the players play for the most part, calling only 4 penalties in the game.