PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Flyers have gotten progressively stronger with each game of this Stanley Cup final.
Now they have something to show for it.
Philly’s Claude Giroux, with the Chicago Blackhawks stuck in a bad line change, pulled off a marvelous re-direct to give the Flyers a 4-3 win at 5:59 of the first overtime period n front of a record crowd of 20,297 at the Wachovia Center.
The Flyers now trail the best-of-seven final 2-1 and successfully defended home ice with Game 4 set for Friday night here. Game 5 will be Sunday in Chicago.
Giroux’s goal, his ninth of the playoffs, came off a great setup by Flyers defenceman Matt Carle, who slipped a pass to him directly in front of Chicago goaltender Antti Niemi.
Giroux angled his stick and the puck hit Niemi, but had enough momentum to slip over the line.
The goal came after a close call a minute earlier for the Flyers. Philly’s Simon Gagne had a shot go off the stick of Chicago’s Dave Bolland and off the post of the Chicago goal and along the goal line.
The Flyers had fought back from a 3-2 deficit after enjoying a couple of early leads.
The Flyers’ Ville Leino - who was their best player on the night - got rewarded with a bit of a lucky goal just 20 seconds after Chicago’s Patrick Kane had benefited from a bounce off Leino’s stick to give the ’Hawks a 3-2 lead at 2:50 of the third period.
Kane had a breakaway after the puck bounded away from Leino in the Chicago slot and Ben Eager, the fourth liner who’s been getting some prime time, moved it up to Toews, who fed Kane who beat Leighton to the stick side for his first goal of the final.
Right after the faceoff, Giroux threw the puck at the net and it bounced off the skate of Chicago defenceman Jordan Hendry, off Niemi and right to Leino heading for the goal and he had the open side to tie it 3-3.
Chicago had fought back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to tie the game. The Flyers took the 2-1 lead only after a video review a good couple of minutes after a shot by Philly’s Scott Hartnell was shown to have crossed the line before Chicago defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson had scooped it out at 9:55 of the second period.
The ’Hawks went out and got free agent centre John Madden for all the things he learned winning a couple of Stanley Cups with the New Jersey Devils.
One of those things is winning key faceoffs. Madden completely owned Philly captain Mike Richards on a draw to the left of Leighton late in the second period, spinning and getting the puck back to Chicago defenceman Brent Sopel who let go a shot that caught the net just inside the far post with a little more than two minutes to go in the period.
Sopel’s first goal of the playoffs (just his third career playoff goal) tied the game 2-2 and led to a very quiet second intermission at the Wachovia Center.
Now the look of this series has completely changed. The ’Hawks looked like a team that, no matter what the Flyers did, were going to find a way to be a goal better by the end of the night. That was the case in the first two games in Chicago.
Now the Flyers have played two strong games in a row after the fluttering start by both teams in the opener and have a chance to tie things up Friday night.
chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca
