Flyers Win Another Close One

With a 3-2 shootout victory tonight over the Dallas Stars, the Flyers have clinched a playoff berth. No matter what happens from here on out, the Flyers will be playing in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. To seal the playoff berth the Flyers had to gut out an extremely close game. Jeff Carter got things started late in the first period with his 33rd goal of the year. The Flyers went into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead. Early in the second Mike Richards made it a 2-0 game, and the playoff berth was in sight. Mid-way through the second period, Dallas Stars' Alex Goligoski cut the lead in half making it a 2-1 affair. In the third the Flyers got a lot of physical play especially from Braydon Coburn who stepped up big for the Flyers defensively. Coburn was a brick wall for the Flyers and really helped out Sergei Bobrovsky. Unfortunately, Stars defender Stephane Robidas tied the game late in the third with an uncontested slap shot in the slot. After killing off a late game Stars power play, the Flyers headed into overtime for the second night in a row. In the extra session the Flyers killed off the remaining few seconds on the Stars' power play and relied heavily on Bobrovsky to keep the puck out of the net. Bobrovsky had some unbelievable saves in OT and he was a big reason the game went into a shoot out. In the shoot out it was Claude Giroux and Villie Leino who came through for the Flyers. Bobrovsky also came up huge with some acrobatic split saves, keeping the puck out of the net at all costs. The shoot out went 6 rounds and finally ended when Villie Leino back handed the puck past an overly aggressive Kari Lehtonen. The win keeps the Flyers 2 points ahead of the second place Capitals and 6 points over the Penguins who are in second place in the Atlantic division. The win also seals a playoff berth for a team that didn't secure a playoff spot until the final game last season. Looking ahead, the Flyers will return home on Tuesday to take on the Capitals at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers will have two well deserved days off but need to come out ready for an extremely important game come Tuesday night.