Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Damian Romano
It was Flower Power all night long in this one. Fleury stopped any and everything that was in his way frustrating all things related to a Flyer. He was truly, as the picture suggests, a brick wall. He worked for everyone of his 45 saves tonight. Number 1 star for the game, and number one in the hearts of all Penguins fans.
Brian Metzer puts it this way,
I really think that Fleury felt he had something to prove. He wanted to show the Flyers that Sunday was the anomaly and not the norm against him. He has played masterfully against them in the playoffs dating back to last year's Eastern Conference Final victory and the word on the street was that they might have figured him out. Fleury answered that talk very clearly tonight as he said "no" time and again.In his own words Fluery states, "It didn't matter how many shots they had, I just tried to make the saves and I knew we would be in good shape to win the game." And he was exactly right.
Similar to game 1 the first goal in this game [after a scoreless 1st period] came off of a controversial Crosby goal. Flying into the net on a pass from Kunitz, Crosby was able to chip one in pass Biron. For me that set the tone. A little over 4 minutes later Tyler Kennedy netted a backhander from a beauty of a pass from Matt Cooke. The rest of the way was all defense.
What differed from this game from game 3 was composure. Like Sykora said last game they got pulled into playing the physical game of the Flyers and got away from what helped them win games. Although the Penguins had more penalties this game, you could see where they stuck to their guns and did what they were best at.
Pensburgh put it like this,
The immediate thing to notice was the amount of post-whistle scrums in Game 4, compared to Game 3. Or, more appropriately, the lack there of. The Penguins didn't succumb to the rough-and-tumble "Flyer style" hockey. And, really, it didn't look like that Philadelphia was as aggressive or attempting to instigate as much as they did in their first game back at home.
Malkin has some chances but looked a bit absent from the game and had little impact overall. The 3rd line with Staal at the helm was the most effective. Staal did have more ice time than both Malkin and Crosby, and for good reason. Not to mention he's one of their best penalty killing forwards being on the back end of 8 power plays.
Sykora was once again ghost. As in the first 3 games he has had some chances to sink a goal, he just hasn't been able to put the biscuit in the basket. Look for more of an impact as we move into the second round.
The only goal for the Flyers came from a former Wilkes-Barre Penguins Danny Carcillo a little over the half-way point in the third.
So with this win the Penguins go up 3-1 in the series and come home to Pittsburgh on Thursday to [hopefully] wrap things up. Guess the "Game Day Smirk" paid off.
I'll end this incredible recap with a personal tribute to my good friend China Jack from Raleigh, NC!
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