Flyers-Devils Game 1 Recap: Lightning Strikes Twice For Briere

Just as they did in the first round against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Flyers won the first game of their series 4-3 in OT. However, this time it was at home instead of on the road, and it took place against the New Jersey Devils and Martin Brodeur. I’m sure everyone’s seen the overtime winner by now, but here’s a recap of how we got there in a hard-fought and tightly contested Game 1 battle:

There were worries about the rust factor for the Flyers after going a week in between games, and it showed early in Game 1. The Devils dominated the first period, outshooting the Flyers 15-6. After extended offensive pressure and Ilya Bryzgalov coming up big with some early saves, Matt Read made the kind of rookie mistake that he hasn’t made in his first year in the NHL, turning the puck over behind his own net. Patrik Elias took the puck and fed it to the front of the net, where captain Zach Parise was waiting on the doorstep. He deposited the puck between Ilya Bryzgalov’s legs, and the Flyers were down (once again) early in the game, with the goal coming just 3:16 into the first period.

The rest of the period was dominated by the Devils, but they couldn’t beat Bryzgalov again. The Flyers had two power play chances in the latter half of the period, but they couldn’t capitalize on either. Brodeur was off to a good start in the game, and he had already proved that he would not be as easy to score on as Marc-Andre Fleury.

As the custom has been for the Flyers this postseason, they roared back from an early deficit. After a back-and-forth start to the period that didn’t see either team gain control, Jake Voracek took the puck from behind his own net and saw Danny Briere streaking behind the Devils’ defense, who had pinched up to try to keep the puck in the zone. Voracek sent the puck flying out of the zone and it was a perfect stretch pass onto Briere’s stick. He skated on in for the breakaway opportunity and beat Brodeur, who tried to stack his pads in an effort to make the save. 8:07 into the period, the score was tied 1-1.

Just 37 seconds later, the Flyers struck again. Wayne Simmonds pressured Brodeur behind the net, and he sent the puck up the middle of the ice. Rookie defenseman Erik Gustafsson intercepted the pass and fired a shot on net. Brodeur somehow scrambled to the front of the net and made the save with his skate while lying on his side. The rebound bounced out to the opposite side of the net, however, and James van Riemsdyk easily deposited it into the empty net for his first goal of the postseason. The Flyers had the Devils on their heels and had all of the momentum while attacking the Devils’ net.

The Flyers got a power play opportunity after a trip by Patrik Elias, and they had some good chances but failed to convert. Most notable was Wayne Simmonds sending a shot wide of the empty net. At the end of the power play, Adam Henrique got a shorthanded breakaway chance. Matt Carle played it very well, and Henrique lost control of the puck without getting a shot attempt. However, the referees decided that Carle had “hooked” him, and the Devils went on the power play after a brief period of 4-on-4 action. Shortly into the power play, Ilya Kovalchuck cycled the puck behind the net to Parise, who sent it into the middle for Travis Zajac, who redirected it between Bryzgalov’s legs and into the net. Bryz got a big piece of it, but it wasn’t enough as it trickled barely over the goal line for a power play to tie the score at 2-2 with a little over 6 minutes left to play in the second period. The Flyers got the better opportunities the rest of the period, but the score remained 2-2 entering the third stanza.

The Flyers came out firing in the 3rd period, and they got a power play out of it 3:50 in on an Andy Greene hook. 30 seconds into the

power play, Scott Hartnell took a pass in the slot and sent it back out to Kimmo Timonen. He passed it to his left for Claude Giroux, who was waiting at the top of the left faceoff circle. Giroux one-timed the pass and unleashed a howitzer of a shot that beat Brodeur over his shoulder on the short side. I can’t emphasize how hard he shot it enough. It was a freaking laser. It looked like it was shot out of a cannon. In any case, it gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead early in the 3rd that they would attempt to hold.

Unfortunately, the lead wouldn’t stay. Past the halfway point of the period, a Flyers pass was flubbed and became a turnover that went directly to David Clarkson, who found Petr Sykora with room to skate. Sykora came in from Bryzgalov’s right and faked a slap shot. After the fake, he shot a wrister that trickled between Bryzgalov’s legs and into the back of the net. Since he didn’t bite on the slap shot, Bryz should have been able to stop the puck. It was a soft goal at an inopportune time for the Flyers, and the Devils tied it up at 3-3 with over 8 minutes left to play.

The Flyers had the better of the chances the rest of the game, most notably a James van Riemsdyk breakaway that Brodeur calmly denied with the craftiness he’s acquired as a veteran goaltender, but the 3rd period ended with the teams knotted at 3 and the game went to overtime.

30 seconds into overtime, Marek Zidlicky took a delay-of-game penalty for clearing the puck over his defensive zone glass and the Flyers went on the power play. On the power play, a puck squirted out in front of the net and Danny Briere redirected it home for the game-winning goal. However, upon further review it became obvious that Briere kicked the puck into the net on purpose, and the goal was disallowed. Briere wouldn’t be deterred, however, and after a brief flurry in front of the Flyers’ net by the Devils the puck went back into the offensive zone. Matt Carle found Jake Voracek, the overtime hero from Game 1 against the Penguins, and he gave it to Briere circling around the rink. He came off the boards and fired a slap shot on net from the blue line, and it beat Brodeur. James van Riemsdyk provided an excellent screen so Brodeur had no chance to stop it, and the Flyers emerged as 4-3 victors. Brodeur wanted goaltender interference called on JVR, but his cries were for naught and the goal stood.

Revisiting the 3 Keys to the Game:
My 3 keys to yesterday’s game were the special teams battle, the goaltending matchup, and the Flyers’ defensive matchups. Interestingly enough, none of these went the Flyers’ way. The Devils were 1 of 3 on the PP, while the Flyers struggled and went just 1 for 6. Martin Brodeur made 32 saves, including a few spectacular ones to deny sure goals, while Ilya Bryzgalov made just 23 saves and let in a couple of soft goals, the third one in particular. Finally, Ilya Kovalchuck didn’t have a good game, registering the assist but not having any shots on goal, but Sean Couturier wasn’t matched up with him very often. Instead, Couturier focused more on Zach Parise’s line, and Parise recorded a goal and an assist. But ultimately, these keys didn’t matter. The Flyers found a way to win, and that is what truly matters.