The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 on Friday, withstanding a late charge by the Western Conference champions to even the best-of-seven Stanley Cup finals at 2-2.
An empty-net goal by Jeff Carter with 25 seconds left sealed the victory after third-period goals by Chicago’s Dave Bolland and Brian Campbell cut a seemingly comfortable 4-1 Flyers’ lead into a 4-3 nail-biter.
The fired-up Flyers looked on their way to a romp after taking a 3-1 first-period lead on unassisted goals from captain Mike Richards and Matt Carle.
PHOTO: REUTERS
What appeared to be the finishing touch was supplied by Ville Leino of Finland, whose third-period goal made it 4-1, before the late charge by the Blackhawks.
It was the seventh successive home playoff win in front of the raucous orange-clad crowd at the Wachovia Center for the Flyers, who travel to Chicago — where the Blackhawks won the opening two games of the series — for Game 5 today.
Joining in the roars of jubilation as the Flyers built their big lead was US Vice President Joe Biden, who hails from the nearby state of Delaware.
The raucous cheering, however, soon gave way to anxiety as first Bolland and then Campbell, with 4 minutes, 10 seconds left in the game, got the puck past Philadelphia goalie Michael Leighton.
Chicago pulled Finnish goalie Antti Niemi with a minute to go and pressed hard for an equalizer, but the puck came free and Carter sealed the crucial victory with an empty-net goal.
The Flyers opened the scoring with a lightning strike after a high-sticking penalty against Tomas Kopecky.
Five seconds after the Chicago right-winger was sent to the box, Richards stole the puck from Sweden’s Niklas Hjalmarsson behind the net and wrapped it around the post and past goalie Antti Niemi after 4 minutes, 35 seconds for a 1-0 lead.
Philadelphia took advantage of another Hjalmarsson mistake 10 minutes later when the Swedish defenseman tried to clear a rebound in front of the net and instead delivered the puck directly to Carle, who snapped it home to make it 2-0.
Chicago clawed their way back in the action-packed first period on a goal from Patrick Sharp after 18 minutes, 32 seconds, but 51 seconds later Claude Giroux, who scored the overtime winner for the Flyers in Game 3, restored the two-goal advantage.
After a scoreless second period, Leino bounced a shot off the back of Chicago’s Kris Versteeg and into the net to make it 4-1, before the Blackhawks battled back to close the gap.
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