PITTSBURGH -- The Philadelphia Flyers were much better last night than they were in the opening game of their NHL playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, except for one thing - luck.
They did a better job of checking stars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. The Flyers goaltender, Martin Biron, was much better. But their luck was just as bad as it was coming into the Eastern Conference final, allowing the Penguins to grab a 4-2 win and 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
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.
But for every stroke of luck the Flyers received, it seemed the Penguins were given two.
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It wasn't even two minutes into the game when the Flyers lost their another important defenceman. Braydon Coburn, a 23-year-old Calgary native who is developing into a terrific blueliner, was hit above the left eye by 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 around his eye. It wasn't immediately known if he will be able to play in Game 3 tomorrow in Philadelphia, but those close to the Flyers think he can.
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 remaining five 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. However, the Flyers could not translate this into any breaks, at least not right away.
Philadelphia took two consecutive penalties and the Penguins opened the scoring on the second one with a power-play goal.
Biron played well but the bounces were not going his way, either, as Crosby scored by bouncing a shot off a Flyers defenceman.
Then there was some luck on the disallowed goal. Penguins defenceman Sergei Gonchar's shot hit Flyers blueliner 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.
The referee signalled the puck had not crossed the goal line. The television replays showed the puck was quite likely over the line when Biron grabbed it, and logic argued the same. But with no clear camera view, the video judges had to disallow the goal.
Then, early in the second period, Flyers winger Joffrey Lupul beat Pittsburgh defenceman Hal Gill to a puck in the corner. Lupul centred it to Jeff Carter, who scored a power-play goal that tied the score and it looked liked the Flyers' luck was turning.
Not exactly.
Eight minutes later, referee Dan O'Halloran made a bad call on Hatcher for hooking. (He had Malkin tied up nicely on a rush and somehow that translated into hooking.) Nine seconds into the power play, Marian Hossa popped in a rebound and the Penguins had the lead again, 2-1.
Then, with time running out in the second period, serendipity finally arrived for the Flyers.
Malkin, who once again was weaving his magic on the ice, approached the Flyers blueline with the puck. The Penguins were on the power play, so this was trouble.
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 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 winger Steve Downie, who was inserted into the lineup last night by head coach John Stevens in hopes of providing a little more offence. Downie had lots of time and room to get the puck out of the Philadelphia zone but he muffed the chance.
Penguins winger Gary Roberts pounced on the loose puck and fed it to Maxime Talbot for what stood up as the winning goal.
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