Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
Two nights ago, the Dallas Stars turned the tables on their opponents, and last night the Philadelphia Flyers did the same. Maybe it was the magic of throwing jerseys all over every statue in Pittsburgh (I doubt it) or maybe it was an emphasis on crashing the net and their physical style of play (I think so). Either way, we're headed back to Pittsburgh for a Game Five on Sunday.
Probably just as happy as the Stars and Flyers right now are the folks over at NBC. Had both of these series been sweeps, they would have had no games to televise this weekend. Instead, the Wings and Stars play Saturday and the Pens and Flyers square off on Sunday. Now should Sunday's game go into a lengthy overtime, we might have a situation like we did last year during the Preakness Stakes (horse race). If you remember, NBC cut away from Game Five of the Sabres and Sens Eastern Conference Final to air pre-race coverage for a bunch of horses. As you might have guessed, hockey fans didn't like this a whole lot. Sunday, the pre-race coverage is set to air on NBC at 4:30 PM EST, with race time at 6:15. Personally, I'm hoping that the game does go into overtime so that we can see if NBC has learned anything from last year.
But yes, there was a hockey game last night so let's talk about that! The Flyers entered the game, at home, in a 3-0 series hole. They came out of the gates flying, not literally, and took a 3-0 lead after one period thanks to goals from Joffrey Lupul, Daniel Briere and Jeff Carter. The latter two were on the powerplay, as the Flyers went 2-for-4 with the man advantage on the night upping their playoff conversion rate to 23.4%. Now let's skip ahead to the third, but before we do, a little insight from Lupul.
''It's pretty simple, win or go home,'' said Lupul. ''We didn't have to do that much thinking before the game.''Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for that, Mr. Lupul.
Anyway, on to the third. The score remained 3-0 Philadelphia entering the period, but a pair of goals from Jordan Staal made it a game again. For a while there, I sort of thought that the Pens would certainly comeback to win. Everything seemed to be going their way, but it was not to be. Lupul added an empty netter and the Flyers held on for a 4-2 victory, sending the series back to Pittsburgh for Game Five on Sunday.
What We're Talking About
- Over at the Sporting News, EMac is singing the praises of Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury.
- Head on over to Mirtle's place for more on last night's game and the other conference final matchup.
- Jes has a funny picture of Alex Ovechkin. I, for one, do believe that the Capitals do some sort of idol worship of AO before games.
- Matt Saler has the latest about Johan Franzen's status for Game Five here at FanHouse.
- And mad props, as the kids would say, for Lackey and the crew's live blog last night. Hopefully everyone made it home OK.
All of a sudden Kimmo Timonen is attempting a comeback for the Flyers in the wake of their Game Four victory. From TSN:
The Flyers received even more good news after the game. Top defenceman Kimmo Timonen, who was expected to miss the remainder of the post-season with a blood clot in his left ankle, said he will skate Friday in an attempt to return for Sunday's fifth game.
Your Obligatory YouTube
Hey, it's Friday and everyone knows what that means. It's the weekend -- what you've been workin' for all week.
Sorry. I had to.
Have you got the latest on Timonen Blood Clot-gate? Got a story that you absolutely have to share? Well, share the love and tip your local FanHouse bloggers. Feel free to drop us a line at nhlfanhouse@googlegroups.com. The best part? We're not asking for any money!
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