Miller Says No

Last night the Flyers looked to take a commanding 3 games to 1 lead over the Buffalo Sabres, but Ryan Miller had different plans.

The Flyers got a ton of shots on goal, but Miller was there every time to turn them away. JVR continued his strong play creating opportunities for himself and his team mates. The Sabres scored the first and only goal of the night off a bang bang play that goalie Brian Boucher had absolutely no chance at. Rob Niedermayer passed a puck through the crease to Jason Pominville who burried the puck in the wide open net. I personally thought that defenseman Matt Carle who let the puck go right under his stick and across the crease to Pominville should have made a better play.

Down 1-0, the Flyers continued to battle offensively. Nikolay Zherdev had another great game offensively, along with Mike Richards who I felt played better. The Flyers suffered a major blow to their offensive attack early when Jeff Carter left the game after the first with a knee injury. In his absence the Flyers got a ton of production from their 4th line of Carcillo, Betts and Powe, who created a lot of opportunities through out the game. While the Flyers did a get a decent amount of shots on goal, a lot of the shots were directed at Miller's chest and were easy saves that required little effort. But the Flyers certainly got their fair share of quality opportunities.

The greatest opportunity came in the 3rd period when the Flyers were able to keep the puck in the zone and find Danny Briere who was all alone in front of Ryan Miller. Briere tried a couple faking moves but was eventually stoned cold in front of the net by Miller. Say what you want about how good Miller is, but if your Danny Briere you have to come through in that situation. Your team can't figure this goalie out and you are all alone in front of him, you have to put the puck in the back of the net, plain and simple.

The Flyers pulled Boosh at the end in favor of the extra attacker and got some great opportunities but were just unable to solve Ryan Miller. The Flyers were shutout by Miller for the second time in the series and lost by a final of 1-0.

Defensively the Flyers played a great game. Brian Boucher made some huge saves in net, and the Flyers penalty kill killed off 4 Buffalo power plays including a Mike Richard's 5 minute major to open the 3rd period. On the power play the Flyers continued their struggles going 0-3 last night on the man advantage. Hopefully Chris Pronger can help out this struggling power play once he returns.

The series will shift back to Philadelphia Friday night in a Game 5 that is going to be an absolute battle. The Flyers need to come out with a lot of energy in front of their home crowd and take back the lead in this series.