Flyers Down Blackhawks

On Thursday night, the Flyers beat the Blackhawks 5-4 in an absolute thriller. It was Ilya Bryzgalov's first start since his 5-1 loss last week against Tampa Bay, and it was also Matt Read's first game on the "G" line. Overall the Flyers played well until the middle of the third period, when everything seemed to fall apart in a hurry.  

Just 3 minutes into the game, the Blackhawks scored off a Jimmy Hayes wrist shot thanks to a Zac Rinaldo turnover at the blue line.  Rinaldo quickly made up for his mistake by fighting Blackhawks rookie Andrew Shaw in his first game. Rinaldo won the fight, tearing Shaw's jersey in the process. With about 50 seconds left in the 1st period, Jakub Voareck scored a goal off a Braydon Couburn slap shot.  Coburn's shot from the point sailed wide of the net and ricocheted off the boards to Voracek, who wristed it in from the left circle.

7 and half minutes into the second period, Shaw scored to make it 2-1 Blackhawks. 17 seconds after Shaw's goal, Scott Hartnell tied the game with his 18th goal of the year. The Flyers dominated the rest of the period scoring 2 more goals, courtesy of  Harry Zolnierczyk and JVR.  The Flyers led in every offensive catagory, they also did not commit any penalties that resulted in a powerplay. Their only penalty was Rinaldo's five minutes for fighting.

It wasn't all good news in the second period though as Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen went back to the locker room about half way through. He returned for the third period but would later be sent back to the locker room. He has been diagnosed with a upper body injury and is day to day, but it looks like he will not play in this weekend's home/away series with Ottawa.

In the third period the Blackhawks came out aggresive but did not get many scoring chances. The Flyers on the other hand were a little slow and lacked intensity. With a little over 6 minutes left in the game, Brent Seabrook scored for the Blackhawks. Just 25 seconds later Patrick Kane scored on a snapshot to tie the game at 4, and it looked like Monday all over again.

The next 3 minutes were intense but neither team scored. Then, with just under two minutes remaining, Patrick Kane commited a a penalty, and the Flyers were awarded their fourth power play of the night.  With about 35 seconds left in regulation, Giroux made a beatiful pass to Hartnell.  Hartnell then made a cross ice pass to JVR who put it in the back of the net to give the Flyers the lead. The Flyers would hold on and go on to win by a final of 5-4.

Three Stars:

1. JVR (2 Goals, 0 assists)
2. Jonathen Toews (0 goals, 2 assists)
3. Claude Giroux (o goals, 2 assists)