With the Flyers already down their best defenseman in Kimmo Timonen, they got what they could ill afford early on; an injury to another defenseman. Braydon Coburn, Timonen’s defensive partner, went down early in the period when he was hit in the face with a puck that deflected off the stick of Evgeni Malkin. The defensemen struggled to keep up and not give as many turnovers to the Penguins who will usually capitalize on the opportunity. Although they didn’t look up to their usual par, the Flyers were light-years better than they were in game 1.

The Penguins controlled the puck for the majority of the first period and kept the Flyers on their heels. With Pittsburgh already on the man advantage, the Flyers were penalized once again when Mike Knuble was sent off for cross checking at 10:40. Just as Jeff Carter emerged from the sin bin, Sidney Crosby’s centering pass took a bounce off the skate of Lasse Kukkonen and snuck by the left foot of Marty Biron for the first goal of the game. Although the goal was from an unfortunate bounce, replays showed that Biron left a little room between his foot and the post. That room proved to be enough. Had Biron hugged the post, he may have kept the game scoreless.

The Penguins and their faithful in Mellon Arena thought they had the advantage early when Sidney Crosby put the puck at the left post and it couldn’t put it past Biron on multiple attempts. Replays showed that the puck may have actually crossed the line despite his inability to ram it home, but the evidence was not conclusive and the play stood as no goal. Jeff Carter picked up a team that looked lifeless to the point of his goal at 5:46 on a power play. He got a great feed from Joffery Lupul with an empty net to shoot at. With his goal, the Flyers looked to have some life which meant it was time for the officials to step in and put an end to that. In the second, the officiating that Flyers fans expected to see, finally emerged. The target of two of the calls was Derian Hatcher, one of the Flyers few remaining defensemen. First Hatcher was called for hooking at 13:34 when he manned up on Malkin who was making his way into the zone. The call was evidently because Hatcher’s stick was in between the legs of Malkin, but the reason for that was incidental contact. Malkin turned his body 90Ëš and made it look purposeful to sell the call. Marian Hossa tallied on the ensuing man advantage only seconds into the power play to put the Penguins up 2-1. The play should never have been called a penalty, so look to see the scoresheet changed and an assist given to number 13, Dan O’Halloran, the official who made the call. Hatcher was called again at 18:17. This time for cross-checking, but the Flyers were able to kill the man advantage.

The Flyers took criticism in the regular season for not being able to close out the period, but that they did in the second stanza when Mike Richards picked up a bad Penguins cross-ice pass and took it coast-to-coast and roofed it over Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the game with under a minute left and on the penalty kill.

The third period featured more questionable officiating when a blatant horse-collar on Richards went uncalled under a minute into the period. The physical play, which elevated from the game one match-up, continued, but the next goal would not come as a result of a call for that physical play. A rare even strength goal was scored by Max Talbot at 8:51 as he got a nice backhand pass from Gary Roberts from behind the goalline. The physical battles continued, but little in terms of offensive pressure for Philadelphia. They spent the majority of the time in their own zone trying to recover from turnovers that they could have prevented. They did a little better than they did in game one, but they lost another defenseman in the process. When they had control of the puck, the Flyers weren’t bad. They lost the shots battle 38-32. Marty Biron was okay, but not the same goalie he was in the first two series. He insists on playing the puck in this series and has been one of the downfalls of this team. In the third he nearly did it again, attempting to clear the zone only to have the puck picked off by Sidney Crosby. Crosby skated around a mass of players but an outstretched Biron grabbed his shot attempt.

If the Flyers are going to get back in this series they will really have to take both games at home. They have confidence in their own building that seems to be missing. They are having trouble breaking out of their own zone, and not getting quality chances. Fleury didn’t have to be all that great for the Penguins, and he didn’t make any really outstanding saves in the contest Sunday night. The defensive game has to get better for Philadelphia if they want to see the light of day in this series. With only five defensemen in game 2, the blue-line should have a little more energy in game 3, but who will be that sixth defenseman is yet to be seen.

It is an uphill battle from here on out for the Flyers who haven’t been down 2-0 in a series yet this year, but a return is still possible. The Penguins have holes defensively and the Flyers need to get puck possession in order to expose them. Sergei Gonchar is easily Pittsburgh’s best defensive player and he is a veteran who has been in the league for quite a while so his speed is not quite what it used to be. The rest of Pittsburgh’s defensive core is not much faster. If the Flyers can use speed to get chances they will have a much better shot at winning. Look for the Flyers to focus on defense and breakouts in practice before Tuesday’s game 3. This team did not come from last place last season to just die in the Conference Finals, so expect a much more emotional game from the orange and black when the puck drops next at 7:30 on Tuesday.

Dave’s 3 Stars of the Game

1. Dan O’Halloran - 2 bad calls, numerous non-calls, 1 assist on Hossa goal
2. Mike Richards - 1 goal, 4 hits
3. Sergei Gonchar - 2 assists

Photo Courtesy: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images