Cup Finals a Slugfest in Game 1, Game 2 TONIGHT

The hype leading into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals was worth the wait and then some. The Hawks took the 1st game of the Finals by a 6-5 score in what was a wild affair. Ville Leino got the scoring going 6 minutes in to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead. A little over a minute later, Troy Brouwer tied the game up at 1. The Hawks then took a 2-1 lead on a great individual effort by Dave Bolland on his highlight reel short handed goal. Philadelphia struck back about 5 minutes later with a Scott Hartnell power play goal to tie it up at 2. The 1st period ended on a high note for the Flyers thanks to the late goal from Danny Briere to give Philadelphia a 3-2 lead at the end of 1.

To the 2nd period we go, and the scoring really picked up in the middle frame. Patrick Sharp scored 1:11 into the period for the Hawks to tie the game up at 3. Then about 6 minutes later, former New York Ranger Blair Betts fired home a wrist shot for his 1st goal of the playoffs to give the Flyers a 4-3 lead. Chicago's offense woke up again thanks to goals from Kris Versteeg and a 2nd from Troy Brouwer to give the Hawks a 5-4 lead with about 5 minutes to go in the 2nd period. However with a little over a minute left in the middle frame the Flyers tied the game up again at 5 thanks to a goal from former New York Islander Arron Asham. So after 40 minutes of play we were tied at 5.


3rd period was by far the most evenly played period of the entire game. The game winner was scored by Tomas Kopecky 8:25 into the period. Now the goal itself was nice but the best part of the entire play was actually the play made by Duncan Keith at the point to keep that puck into the zone. Don't believe me, see for yourself:



So that was the game winning goal. Antti Niemi stopped 27 of 32 Flyer shots in the victory. Meanwhile his Flyers counterparts had a little trouble. Michael Leighton stopped 15 of 20 Hawks shots and was lifted half way through the 2nd period and replaced by Brian Boucher who stopped 11 of 12 Hawks Shots and got saddled with the loss.

The Flyers announced this morning that Michael Leighton will be back in net again tonight as the starter for the Flyers here in game 2. Coverage gets underway tonight at 8 on NBC!