  Dave Bolland and Brent Sopel celebrate Bolland's goal during the first period of Game 1. (Alex Urosevic/QMI Agency)
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CHICAGO - Looking back on it now, that first goal, off a defenceman’s face which left a big pool of blood in the crease and a trail to the bench, well, that kind of summed up the night.
If you wore big pads and a mask Saturday night at United Center, it was a bloody mess.
A Stanley Cup final billed as the matchup between the two worst goalies to get this far in recent memory lived down to its billing in Game 1. Antti Niemi of the Chicago Blackhawks was just slightly better than Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher of the Philadelphia Flyers as the ’Hawks took a 1-0 series lead with a 6-5 win at United Center.
Stopping the flow of goals in this young series now looks like a bigger job than capping an underwater oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Leighton, the waiver pickup who had helped the Flyers get this far, exited the game after giving up five goals on just 20 shots - a .750 save percentage - and was replaced by Boucher, who had just received clearance to play after spraining both knees in the second round.
Now the goal judges at the United Center have sprained both wrists.
The Flyers opened the scoring with that ugly goal which saw Philly’s Ville Leino bank a shot into the ’Hawks goal off the face of Chicago defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson just short of seven minutes into the game.
Chicago bounced back to take a 2-1 lead on goals by Troy Brouwer and a shortie by Dave Bolland.
Philadelphia took a 3-2 lead on goals by Scott Hartnell and Daniel Briere.
And that was just the first period.
Chicago tied it again 71 seconds into the second period on a goal by Patrick Sharp, but Blair Betts’ first of the playoffs on an angle shot off the far post gave the Flyers the lead again at 7:20.
At this point, the ’Hawks top line of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien was a combined minus-9.
Goals by Chicago’s Kris Versteeg and Brouwer, with his second of the night, chased Leighton from the net at 15:18 of the second with the ’Hawks ahead 5-4. But after some sloppy play by the ’Hawks in their zone, Philly’s Arron Asham was allowed to wire one in the open side to tie it after two.
Boucher, playing his first game since May 7, stopped the first 11 shots he saw from the ’Hawks, but he got fooled by a delay move by Tomas Kopecky - playing in place of the injured Andrew Ladd - and Kopecky slipped the puck between Boucher’s stick and the right post from a bad angle at 8:25 for the lead.
Niemi was just good enough for the win on the night, making a nice glove save on Philly’s Daniel Briere with two minutes to go in the third period.
An interesting night, huh? All those goals and none by the ’Hawks big guns.
The only good news on the night for the Flyers was Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay picked a good night to throw a perfect game. Halladay will be at least as big a story in Philly, if not bigger.
Halladay was perfect; the Flyers’ goalies perfectly ugly.
