FanHouse Aaron Asham

The fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins arrived at Mellon Arena on Thursday night in hopes that their team, owners of a three-games-to-one series lead over the Philadelphia Flyers, could end their first round series with a win and become the second team in the conference to advance to the next round.

The crowd came dressed right for sure, as the locals, in a nod to the disenfranchised fans of Manitoba, came dressed for a "Winnipeg White Out" -- Pittsburgh style.

Unfortunately for the Penguins, the Flyers were having none of it. After surviving a first period where they were outshot by the Penguins, 15-5, the Flyers shifted into a workmanlike style of playoff hockey that stifled Pittsburgh offensively and erased their power play once again. Toss in a solid, if unspectacular performance from Philadelphia goalie Martin Biron (28 saves), and it all added up to a neat 3-0 victory for the Flyers that extended the series, forcing the Penguins to travel back to Philadelphia for a Game 6.

---

---

The Islanders jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Tuesday night, thanks to a pair of goals from Doug Weight and Andy Hilbert less than a minute apart. Unfortunately for them, as has been the case all season, they couldn't hold it, as the Flyers roared back to take a 3-2 lead in the second period, and eventually win, 4-3, handing the Islanders their fourth straight loss.

After Aaron Asham put the Flyers on the board late in the first period, Darroll Plowe, a former undrafted free agent -- a fact Versus mentioned no fewer than 30 times -- tied the game midway through the second with his first NHL goal. Eight minutes later, Jeff Carter scored his 20th goal of the season -- tied for the top spot in the league with Buffalo's Thomas Vanek -- to give Philadelphia its first lead of the night.

The Islanders fought back at the 2:07 mark of the final period, when Blake Comeau scored a relatively weak goal on Martin Biron, after it essentially rolled into the net behind him.

Simon Gagne scored the game-winner late in the third, moving the Flyers into a tie for second place in the Atlantic Division with cross-state rival, Pittsburgh.

There was one reason why if you were a Sabres fan you should have been worried around halfway through last night's game. It wasn't for a lack of effort on their part ,allowing the Isles controlled the tempo of the game. It wasn't a sense of over-confidence at the prospect of playing (on paper) an inferior opponent. And, it wasn't that Ryan Miller looked unprepared for the pressure of bringing a Cup to Buffalo.

It was simply that they'd dominated the Isles and were still just one bad shift or bounce away from trailing on the scoreboard. As Lindy Ruff said after the game, "If you let a team hang around, they can have those one or two shifts or they'll score on special teams and take the game away from you."

That said, though, lest anyone forget just who leads this Buffalo Sabres squad, it was Chris Drury who broke the tie at 11:13 of the 2nd period with the first of 2 power play goals the Sabres would score. It would turn out to be all the Sabres needed. Simply put, the goal was the result of the Sabres outworking the Isles. Two goals in the 3rd ended any thoughts of an Islander victory, even though it was, by far, the Isles best period of the game.

Drury and defenseman Brian Campbell accounted for all of the scoring for the Sabres, while Aaron Asham converted on the only 2 on 1 the Sabres gave up through 30 minutes, burying a perfect pass from Jason Blake after Derek Roy over-stayed a shift and turned the puck over just inside the Islanders' blue line. It was a play borne of over-confidence by Roy and it would also be the last time he did that in the game.