What a Win for the Flyguys
0.6 seconds. That was the difference between winning and losing. In one of the best games of the year, the Flyers took on the current NHL leading Carolina Hurricanes. The game had a playoff atmosphere and the crowd was electric all throughout the game. With each and every shot in the 3rd period, the crowd roared with “oohs” and “aahs” as the jumped up out of their seats. However, a win looked quite unlikely at the end of the game with the Hurricanes up 2-1. But with 4 seconds left, Mike Knuble passed the puck out to Mike Rathje who fired a slapshot with 2 seconds left that Freddy Meyer deflected through the pads of Martin Gerber. With the puck sitting in the net with 0.6 seconds left, the game headed to overtime. The crowd was on its feet giving a standing ovation showing great support for a spectacular effort by the Flyers.
The 4-on-4 overtime was packed with tons of high paced action and plenty of scoring chances. Nedved got a breakaway shot off and Forsberg got missed the net wide on his chance. Carolina had several chances that Antero Niittymaki turned away. With 52 seconds left, Freddy Meyer got a penalty for hooking but Carolina was unable to take advantage of their 4-on-3 power play. So, then the game headed to a shootout.
Antero Niittymaki has struggled with shootouts but he stepped up to the plate for this one. Ray Whitney scored on the Hurricane’s first shootout chance but that was the only goal that Niitty allowed. Richards and Nedved were unable to score on their chances. Just like the other night, the Flyers were left in the hands of Peter Forsberg (that isn’t a bad thing in most cases). Forsberg skated down the ice and deked left and went back right and slide the puck through the five-hole of Gerber to extend the shootout. Eric Staal was pokechecked by Niittymaki which gave Simon Gagne the chance to give the Flyboys a W. Gagne got a backhand past Gerber to give the victory. And then the Wachovia Center crowd went beserk as the Flyers jumped onto the ice to celebrate a big win.
Hopefully this emotional win will jumpstart the Flyers on a streak that will bring them up in the standings and get them into a groove before the playoffs.
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Posted on March 8, 2006 by Kyle Garis | Filed Under Flyers, Philadelphia
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Kyle,
I just caught the third period of last nights game…but damn was it worth it! That goal with .6 seconds in regulation was classic. One of those situations where you’d already resigned yourself to the loss, and then bang, the game is still on.
Then, the same thing happened in the shootout. They were down the whole shootout until we packed the 1-2 punch of Forsberg-Gagne. Sweet.