The Flyers hold on to win game 4 by the score of 5-4. Sabrespeed failed Buffalo again.
Sabres score the first goal again as they have done all series with a great deflection by Thomas Vanek on the power play. Daniel Briere scored with a lot of help from Eric ‘Mr. fall down’ Desjardins giving the Sabres a 2-0 lead. Robert Esche stopped Briere on a breakaway only to have Desjardins fall, slide and push himself, Esche and the puck into the goal. Two minutes later Desjardins vindicates himself with scoring the Flyers first goal of the night making it a 2-1 Sabres lead. In the second period Peter Forsberg picked up his 3rd goal of the playoffs to tie the game at 2. Derek Roy was awarded a penalty shot for the Sabres, but he missed. In the third Petr Nedved picked up a power play goal giving the Flyers a 3-2 lead. Later Daniel Briere scored his second goal of the night on a 5 on 3 Sabres power play to against tie the game at 3. R.J. Umberger then scored a soft goal giving the Flyers back the lead at 4-3. Umberger’s goal was the first by a Flyers rookie in this postseason. Peter Forsberg scored his second of the night at 19:11of the third period, an empty netter. Sabre’s goalie Ryan Miller was caught heading off the ice for a potential extra man advantage. This gave the Flyers a 5-3 lead and with Rory Fitzpatrick taking a hooking penalty at 19:31 the Flyers on the power play, mentally started celebrating too soon. Sabre’s Mike Grier scored short handed at 19:41 pulling the Sabres within a goal with the score 5-4. The Flyers were able to survive the last 19 seconds winning a couple critical face offs and having the Sabres take another minor penalty.
R.J. Umberger after scoring his goal, “I’ve seen that hit enough. So you guys can stop showing that and show the goal over and over now.”
Yeah that’s not going to happen.
While Peter Forsberg was the man for the Flyers offensively, Robert Esche deserves equal praise for his work in goal. The only goal I would fault Esche for is the Grier goal, but I suspect mentally his mind was elsewhere, like the majority of Flyers and fans at that point. He was clearly better than Miller last night. I have heard some rumblings from the Buffalo faithful that Martin Biron should get the start in game 5.
Although the Flyers did give up 2 power play goals out of 4 kills, they are playing a more disciplined game. They did not go after Sabres taking bad penalties as in previous games. Unlike one Paul Gaustad of the Sabres. I am not seeing any Flyers fans demanding suspension and such, just a few commenting on what he did was wrong. Like ripping off Umberger’s helmet and giving him a good face wash when it is well known his nose is broken. I could understand if Umberger was involved in some sort of scrum, but he wasn’t, just standing there. Then there is the Gaustad’s charging penalty on Gauthier. While I am sure many of Sabres fan enjoyed it and didn’t think it was a penalty, it most obviously was. It wasn’t really charging, more like checking from behind. And if Gauthier was a foot or two closer to the boards, it would have been a much more dangerous hit. This makes me wonder though, if he was closer to the boards, would have Gaustad been served a major and tossed from the game. I also wonder if Sabres fans would be calling for his suspension with as much energy as they called for Gauthier.
Healthy scratches again for the Flyers were Turner Stevenson, Donald Brashear Ryan Potulny and Ben Eager. Chris Therien, Kim Johnsson and Keith Primeau still injured for the Flyers. For Buffalo Teppo Numminen was out with his heart condition. Jochen Hecht left the game with an upper body injury in the second period after mixing it up a bit with Forsberg.
Peter Forsberg, Robert Esche and Daniel Briere were the three stars of the game.
The series is tied at 2 games a piece. So it’s a best of 3 now. For the ‘idiots’, I mean Flyers, they need to win at least one game in Buffalo to win the series. Also for a chance to see the Captain back on the ice this season.