The Philadelphia Flyers mounted an astounding comeback in the final minutes of regulation, but still fell in overtime to Colorado 4-3.
Scoring for the Flyers were Kim Johnsson Power Play, Mike Knuble Power Play and Peter Forsberg.
Liles Power Play, Clark, Laaksonen and Tanguay Power Play scored for Colorado.

The Flyers were down 3-1 late in the game. With 3 minutes left and on the power play the Flyers pulled Niittymaki to make it a 6 on 4 PP. This worked, with Mike Knuble scoring making the game 3-2 at 17:24. A little over a minute later with the momentum the Flyers had, Forsberg scored to tie the game eventually sending it into overtime.

Bad officiating basically cost the Flyers the game, or at least a chance at a shootout.
The first goal by Colorado was off a hooking call against Michal Handzus. Handzus clearly hooked the stick and not the body. Is that not a stick check and is allowed? I guess it depends on the official. The hook was up near the hands so I guess it was questionable.
What wasn’t questionable was the non-call on Tanguay who tripped Savage that led to a 3-2 which resulted in a goal.
Then there was the dive in overtime, which put the Flyers down 5 on 3. The second penalty eventually led to Colorado scoring the winning goal.

Ken Hitchcock “The second penalty in the overtime was a dive. Everyone on the ice knew it, their bench knew it, our players knew it. It was a dive. That’s more of the issue. [Sakic] grabbed [Rathje’s] stick, hooked it under his body and went down. It was a dive.
It is hard because we won some of these games before. In the end it evens out. What’s hard is when you’re short handed and then you’re put short handed again on a dive.”

Yeah, that comment will probably cost him a little cash.
Officiating is not perfect, and is down right bad sometimes as it has always been. The new NHL hasn’t fixed that. What the Flyers need to do is get back to playing hard every shift and not just play good enough to win, since bad officiating is something they just can not control.

Even if the Flyers seemed out played many times in that game, overall the game was good and exciting. It is just good to be home.

As far as NBC’s performance on their first games broadcast this year, it was decent. Nice to not have homers calling the games, especially since I usually pick up opposing teams broadcasts. No goalie cams in this game. The play by play was a little off. There is no player by the name of Jeremy Stevenson and Rathje wears #3 not Hatcher. But overall good.

Forsberg, Sakic and Gagne were the three stars.

With the return of Turner Stevenson, Ben Eager was sent back down to the Phantoms. Both Donald Brashear and Chris Therien returned to the lineup after missing two games with minor injuries.

Antero Niittymaki has officially been added to the Olympics roster for Finland.
Sylvester Stallone made an appearance at the game wearing a Flyers jersey with Balboa 06 on the back.