PITTSBURGH -- The Philadelphia Flyers were much better in all areas last night except one - luck.
In the second game of their NHL playoff series with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Flyers did a better job of checking Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. Their goaltender, Martin Biron, was much better. But their luck was just as bad as it was coming into the Eastern Conference final as the Penguins grabbed a 4-2 win and 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Granted, the game turned on a third-period miscue by Flyers winger Steve Downie, but that might not have mattered if a few more bounces had gone the Flyers' way.
This is not to say good luck completely deserted the Flyers. They did get a huge break late in the first period, when the Penguins had a goal that was almost certainly legitimate disallowed by the video judges. And there was a giveaway by Malkin that produced a crucial goal.
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But for every stroke of luck the Flyers received, it seemed the Penguins were given two.
It wasn't even two minutes into the game when the Flyers lost their second important defenceman to injury. Braydon Coburn, a 23-year-old Calgary native who is developing into a terrific blueliner, was hit above the left eye with a deflected shot from the point and was lost for the rest of the game.
Coburn needed more than 50 stitches to close the cut, but said he expects to play in the third game of the series tomorrow.
With Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers' best defenceman, already out for the rest of the playoffs with a blood clot in his ankle, the loss of Coburn was a serious blow. The five remaining Philly defencemen took on more ice time and still managed to do a better job checking Malkin and Crosby than they did in the first game.
"I thought our [defence] played much better than we did in the game before, which we were looking for," Flyers head coach John Stevens said. "But it's tough. Tough on the road. You've got five D. You've got one of your key guys out."
There was a lot of luck on the disallowed goal, since it would have given the Penguins a 2-0 lead in the first period.
Sergei Gonchar's shot hit Flyers defenceman Derian Hatcher in front of the net, deflected downward and bounced along the goal line. Crosby swiped at it and missed and Biron reached back, grabbed the puck and froze it.
No goal was signalled on the ice. The television replays showed the puck was quite likely over the goal line when Biron grabbed it, and logic argued the same. But with no clear camera view, the video judges had to disallow the goal.
When Jeff Carter tied the score 1-1 early in the second period, it looked as if the Flyers' luck was turning.
Not quite.
Eight minutes later, referee Dan O'Halloran made a bad call on Hatcher for hooking Malkin. Nine seconds into the power play, Marian Hossa popped in a rebound and the Penguins had the lead again.
Then, with time running out in the second period, a moment of serendipity finally arrived.
Malkin, who once again was weaving his magic on the ice, approached the Flyers' blueline with the puck. But this time, instead of going around three Flyers on his way to the net, Malkin decided to throw the puck into the middle of the ice. It landed right on the stick of Flyers forward Mike Richards. He took off on a breakaway and tied the score 2-2 with a short-handed goal with 14 seconds left in the period.
That is the sort of goal that lifts one team and drops the other down an elevator shaft. But the Penguins are not just any team.
They kept coming in the third period and capitalized when a break went their way. This one was not luck, but incompetence.
Midway through the period, a clearing attempt went from behind the Flyers' net, around the boards and up to Downie, who was making his first appearance of the series. He had lots of time and room to get the puck out of the Philadelphia zone, but left the loose puck for veteran Penguins winger Gary Roberts. He fed it to Maxime Talbot for what stood up as the winning goal.
All that was left was for the Flyers to act stoic as the series switched to their hometown.
"We were right there," forward Joffrey Lupul said. "It's not like we were playing a team that is out of our league. We had our chances to tie the game."
