The first game of the Flyers vs Sabres series was a mostly defensive struggle, game two was anything but. The Flyers defeated Buffalo 5-4 Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center to even the Eastern conference quarterfinal at a game apiece.
The game started out with a furious first period that saw six goals and an early end to Sergei Bobrovsky's night. After the rookie gave up three goals on his first seven shots, Peter Laviolette pulled him in favor of Brian Boucher. Boosh would go on to save 20 of the 21 shots he faced in the final 46 minutes for the win. Boucher was certainly one of the unlikely stars of last years' Stanley Cup finals run and it seems like there's a chance he could be this season as well.
James van Riemsdyk was named the first star of the night in part because of his tenacity throughout the game, but mostly due to his slick goal near the end of the first that knotted the game at three and really seemed to help turn the Flyers fortunes. After Buffalo turned the puck over up near their own blue line, van Riemsdyk pounced on it, split two defenseman and wristed a goal past Ryan Miller on the glove side. Check out the video in case you missed it...
The Flyers did finally get a power play goal when Ville Leino scored to break the tie in the second, but their misery with the man advantage continued. They were an almost hard to believe 1-for-10 on the power play tonight, making them 1-for-15 in the series as well as 0-for-3 on 5-on-3 chances.
Claude Giroux had a goal and an assists while Dan Carcillo and Danny Briere also scored for the Flyers. For Briere, it was his 14th goal in his last 23 playoff games. He has 32 total points over that span.
The series now shifts to Buffalo for game three on Monday at 7pm.