NOT DONE YET. 
The Philadelphia Flyers had no intention of going quietly into the offseason — especially not when faced with being swept by their in-state rivals.
Instead, the Flyers avoided a sweep and pushed the Eastern Conference Finals to a fifth game with a 4-2 win in Game 4 on Thursday night. First-period goals by Joffrey Lupul, Daniel Briere and Jeff Carter gave Philadelphia a lead, and Martin Biron played his best game of the series in goal, making 36 saves as Philadelphia hung on.
The Flyers played with a desperation and physical edge they hadn’t shown earlier in the series, especially in the first period, and rendered Pittsburgh’s big guns — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marian Hossa — virtually invisible. Pittsburgh didn’t score until 3:16 into the third period, when Jordan Staal poked in a rebound. Staal added another goal at 14:11, making the sellout crowd at the Wachovia Center nervous, but Lupul hit the empty net with 32.3 seconds to play as the Flyers won for the first time in six tries when trailing 3-0 in a playoff series.
The Penguins still lead 3-1 and can wrap up the series and their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since winning it in 1992 with a victory at home on Sunday afternoon.
The Flyers had beaten Marc-Andre Fleury just five times in the first three games, but it was apparent early that Game 4 was going to be different. After getting just 18 shots at Fleury in Game 3, the Flyers rode the roar of the crowd to their best period of the series.
Fleury had to come up big just a minute into the game, getting a pad on Scott Hartnell’s shot from right in front of his crease.
Pittsburgh got the first power play of the game at 5:57 when Briere was nailed for tripping Staal behind the Philadelphia net. But each team wound up with a good chance during the advantage: Philadelphia’s Mike Richards missed the net on a shorthanded breakaway, and Biron stopped Hossa in alone on the return rush.
The Flyers then took only their second lead of the series at 8:27 when Lupul came down the right side and teed up a slap shot that deflected off defenseman Hal Gill’s stick and beat Fleury. Philadelphia had the lead for only 1:21 in the first three games.
The Flyers received their first power-play chance when Sergei Gonchar was called for holding Briere at 9:51. After generating little for most of the advantage, they made it 2-0 at 11:48 when Briere outfought the Pittsburgh defense for a rebound and swatted it past Fleury. It was his ninth of the playoffs and first of the series.
Philadelphia got another man advantage when defenseman Kris Letang was called for clipping Scottie Upshall at 12:51. Pittsburgh killed this one without incident, though four players received roughing minors after a scrum midway through the power play.
The Flyers nearly made it a three-goal game with just under four minutes left, but Fleury got his pad on a blast from the high slot by Vaclav Prospal, and R.J. Umberger fired the rebound through the crease and wide with the goaltender out of position.
However, Philadelphia cashed in on another power play at 18:50 for a 3-0 lead. With Brooks Orpik in the box for roughing, Carter dug the rebound of Umberger’s right-point wrist shot out of pile of bodies in front of the net and backhanded it past Fleury for his sixth of the playoffs.
The Flyers wound up outshooting the Penguins 17-13 in the opening period — only one fewer shot on goal that they managed in all of Game 3.
Fleury kept the margin at three 5½ minutes into the second period when he did a cartwheel to stop Briere, who was all alone below the right faceoff dot and got off a sizzling wrist shot.
Carter was called for tripping Malkin at 14:17, giving the Penguins their first power play in nearly 30 minutes of playing time. Pittsburgh did little with the extra man until the final seconds, when Ryan Whitney was left alone in the left circle only to have Biron catch and hold his shot.
The Penguins outshot Philadelphia 12-9 in the period, but most of those were longer-range and wide-angled shots that gave Biron little problem.
Pittsburgh needed a goal early in the third period to have any kind of chance, and the Penguins got one when Staal came out of the corner to the right of Biron and drove to the net. Kennedy got off a shot that Biron stopped, but Staal got his stick on the rebound and nudged it into the net off the goaltender. Staal was in the lineup one day after attending the funeral of his grandmother in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
That goal gave the Penguins a jolt of energy, and they carried the play for the next few minutes but saw most of their opportunities miss the net or deflect off a Flyer.
Upshall had the Flyers’ first good chance of the period with just over seven minutes left when he was alone in front and got a tip on Hartnell’s pass, only to be denied by Fleury.
That save became a big one when Staal got his second of the night less than two minutes later. The second-year center got free inside the left circle, took Kennedy’s passout from the corner and ripped a shot from 15 feet that beat Biron to the short side.
vCash:
138
Flyers Hold Off Elimination with 4-2 Win 
Points: 7-153
Tetris
Snake
UFO Shoot Out
whining self throughout the entire game. Malone got what he deserved when Hatch finally was let go of. I was screaming at the tv that he take a beating because he was swinging away at Hatch while someone else was holding him. Such a pussy move on his part. Even the wife didn't understand my ranting until she saw the replay.
Linear Mode
