With an 8-1 record in their last nine playoff games, the Philadelphia Flyers will head to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Black Hawks. The Flyers defeated the Montreal Canadiens at home and defeated the series in five games, 4-1.
Canadians Brian Gionta would open the scoring with just :59 on the line and put Montreal on track quickly after going without a goal in the previous game.
Up to this point, the Canadiens have been perfect in games when facing elimination and won the previous two series against the number one seed Washington Capitals and the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. They lost in both series 3-2 before winning games six and seven.
But the tables would soon turn with the Canadians on a power play and with a loose puck back in the Montreal area, a foot race was underway between forward Mike Richards and defenseman Roman Hamrlik. Richards had a pass on Hamrlik and this caused Jaroslav Halak to come out and try to play the puck before the two could reach him. However, they all reached for the puck at the same time and collided as the puck passed through all of them. Richards would be the first to reach it and put it into the empty net to tie the game at one.
The second period would see the best explosion of the game for the Philadelphia Flyers with Arron Asham and Jeff Carter scoring two goals in a span of just 1:24 and a 3-1 Flyers lead.
The 3-1 lead would carry into the third period and Scotty Gomez would make it a one-goal game that would give the Canadiens some life, but that life would soon end as time ran out and Jeff Carter would return a goal from empty home net and would put to bed the eight seed Montreal Canadians Cinderella playoff playoff.
So here are the seventh-seeded Philadelphia Flyers, who didn’t clinch a playoff berth until the final day of the regular season with an overtime shootout victory over the New York Rangers. Then make history by becoming the third NHL team to climb out of an 0-3 hole in the series and win it. Are the Philadelphia Flyers the team of destiny?
They are the Chicago Black Hawks and the Philadelphia Flyers for the 2010 Stanley Cup, two teams that have not won since 1961 (Black Hawks) and 1975 (Flyers). History will be made!
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