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A new hero Rookie's OT winner pulls Flyers back into series
Posted: Wednesday May 03, 2000 07:59 AM
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Philadelphia Flyers' desperation overcame Jaromir Jagr's domination. Jagr rallied Pittsburgh from a two-goal deficit before the Flyers came back on the road to do what they couldn't do at home, winning 4-3 on Andy Delmore's overtime goal Tuesday night to cut the Penguins' series lead to a game. Delmore, a rookie defenseman, scored his first two career playoff goals, the second at 11:01 of overtime to overcome a brilliant game by Jagr, who had two goals and an assist. The road team won for the third consecutive game in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The seventh-seeded Penguins take a 2-1 lead into Game 4 Thursday, but squandered a chance to virtually wrap up the series by allowing the Flyers to dominate the overtime.
The top-seeded Flyers outshot the Penguins 11-1 in the extra session and 44-18 overall, with Delmore wristing a shot from the slot past Ron Tugnutt off passes by Jones and Jody Hull. "I let Jody Hull know how open I was. He made a drop pass to Keith Jones and he made a shovel pass to me," Delmore said. "I was lucky enough to shift from by backhand to my forehand and make the shot." Jones said, 'Delmore was yelling for the puck loud enough that the people up top could hear him. He scored a fantastic goal.' Jagr scored his fourth and fifth goals of the series and had a hand in every Penguins goal as they rallied from Flyers leads of 2-0 and 3-2 before Philadelphia ended an eight-game playoff overtime losing streak. The Flyers hadn't won a playoff overtime game since Eric Lindros' goal beat New Jersey on June 7, 1995. "He [Jagr] was unbelievable," Penguins forward Matthew Barnaby said. "That's one of the best games I've ever seen anyone play." The Flyers, who never led in either game in Philadelphia, opened a 2-0 lead in a frenetically played first period, lost it as Jagr's line scored twice in the second period, then regained it on John LeClair's goal at 7:27 of the third. "We didn't fold," Flyers goalie Brian Boucher said. "It was almost like we knew it was our turn to win." The Flyers are one of the NHL's best teams with a lead. But as they already know, that means nothing when Jagr is on the ice -- and that probably seemed to the Flyers like virtually every shift. Jagr, who appeared to skate in an even higher gear than normal in the second period and kept it going, got open in the high slot, skillfully faked defenseman Eric Desjardins off his skates, and wristed a shot by Boucher at 14:28 of the third for his fourth goal in two games.
As the sellout crowd of 17,148 threatened to lift the steel top off Mellon Arena, the NHL's oldest arena, Flyers coach Craig Ramsay wisely took a timeout to slow Pittsburgh's momentum, and the Penguins never regained it. The Flyers shortened their bench in the overtime, abandoning Ramsay's four-line rotation to constantly get their best skaters on the ice. "No, I don't think we ran out of gas," Penguins coach Herb Brooks said. "Jagr really reached out to bail us out tonight, and we really didn't have a lot of things going." The Penguins had never lost in Game 3 in seven previous playoff series they led 2-0. Philadelphia changed its top two lines after losing the first two games on home ice, but it was a Penguins line change that led to their comeback. Brooks replaced Josef Beranek on the top line with Martin Straka, alongside Jan Hrdina and Jagr, and the move paid off with a goal within 40 seconds of the second period. Straka's shot deflected high into the air off Boucher, who lost his balance and had grab the crossbar to stay on his skates. Jagr jumped on the puck and missed his first rebound attempt, but lifted up a second over Boucher's leg from along the right side of the net. The same Penguins line tied it later in the second period and again in the third. Jagr, double teamed in the neutral zone, tapped a pass along the right wing boards to defenseman Bob Boughner. He rammed a cross-ice pass to Straka, who tipped it with the top of his stick into the net at 10:23 of the second before Boucher could react. The Flyers, who scored only once in 73 shots in the first two games, scored on consecutive shots by Delmore and Jones in the first period.
Delmore's goal gave the Flyers their first lead of the series, and they didn't take long to add to it. Penguins forward Alexei Kovalev gave the puck away in the neutral zone, allowing Jones to power a shot inside the far post from the edge of the right circle.
"Sure, this gives them a lift, and now they're thinking they
can win," Barnaby said. "But we're happy where we are. We have to
be ready to play Game 4 and, if we are, it can be 3-1. I don't
think we've played our best game yet."
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