Flyers Rally But Fall to Bruins in OT

Bruins 5, Flyers 4

The Bruins dominated the Philadelphia Flyers in Boston for most of the afternoon Saturday, but Philadelphia rallied to force overtime before pretty much letting the Bruins take shooting practice and score the winning goal with just more than six minutes left in the overtime period.

Unexpectedly hot in the first round, Flyers goalie Brian Boucher let five pucks get past him, but it would harsh to say he played poorly. He was brilliant in overtime as the defense in front of him failed to keep the Bruins off him. Overtime opened with a barrage of shots on the Boucher in just the first minute. The Bruins out shot the Flyers 15-4 in overtime, and Marc Savard scored with 6:08 to go to deliver the 5-4 win.

The Bruins struck early, scoring just 2:39 into the game, and were ahead 2-0 at the end of the first period. Steve Begin tallied the first goal on assists from Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi. Bergeron notched the second score on an assist from Dennis Wideman.

Twice the Flyers cut the lead to one in the second period, but each time the Bruins answered, taking a 4-2 lead 7:25 into the third.

Then, almost halfway through the third period, Boucher's frustration got the best of him. After XXXX knocked away Boucher's stick during a Flyers power play, the goalie retaliated with an off-balance shove, which earned him a roughing penalty, negating the power play and sending forward Daniel Briere to the box -- just when the Flyers needed to rally. But maybe that was the spark the team needed.

The Flyers scored twice in the final 10 minutes, with Briere tying the game with 3:22 left.

In his first game back since a concussion seven weeks ago, Savard scored the game winner on a delayed penalty. With the Flyers due to receive a penalty in their own end, Savard got the puck at the right circle and slapped it past Boucher and under the crossbar.

Savard was injured on a blindside hit from Matt Cooke on March 7 and hadn't played since.

Tuukka Rask stopped 32 shots for Boston, and Miroslav Satan had a goal and an assist.

Boucher -- who gave up only eight goals in the Flyers' 4-1 first round defeat of the New Jersey Devils (half of them in the 5-3 Game Two loss) -- stopped 41 shots.

Mike Richards added a goal and two assists for the Flyers.

Game Two of this second-round series is Monday night in Boston.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us