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Killer B's attack New Jersey Boucher, Berube lift Flyers to 3-1 series lead over Devils
Posted: Monday June 26, 2000 10:43 PM By Bill Harris, SLAM! Sports EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Could the beleaguered but brave Philadelphia Flyers actually be for real? The Flyers last night moved to within a win of the Stanley Cup final with a 3-1 victory against the New Jersey Devils before a sellout crowd of 19,040 at the Continental Airlines Arena.
"I felt like something would happen [last night]," said Berube, whose game-winning goal at 12:58 of the third period was his first point of the playoffs. Was it the biggest goal of the ex-Maple Leaf enforcer's career? "I scored one in the conference final in 1998 [for Washington] against Buffalo, and that was big ... but this was big, too," Berube said. Berube tipped in Dan McGillis' shot from the point past stunned Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. Berube acknowledged that "nobody was near me," a fact that infuriated normally mild-mannered Devils coach Larry Robinson. "All we had to do was stop and cover our man," said a seething Robinson, who almost made the walls in the Devils' dressing room bleed with his post-game diatribe. "For some reason it was too hard to stop." Simon Gagne added an insurance goal for Philly at 16:40 of the third period off a great feed from Flyers captain Eric Desjardins. That sent the many Philly fans in attendance into a wild celebration, and set off more than a few fights in the stands. The Flyers will take a 3-1 series lead into Game 5 of the NHL Eastern Conference final tomorrow night at the First Union Center in Philadelphia. The Devils, who in Game 3 had looked eerily similar to the lost bunch that got coach Robbie Ftorek fired with eight games remaining in the regular season, could not be faulted for their effort through two periods last night. But with 20 minutes to go the score still was 1-1, thanks in large part to Boucher, who stopped 24 of 25 shots on the night and made one unlikely save with the knob of his stick. Brodeur, who stopped 18 of the 21 shots that were fired in his direction, could not be faulted on the Berube tip-in. But Brodeur did give the Flyers a first-period gift with a puck-handling gaffe that led to the first goal of the game. Brodeur's weak clearing attempt from behind his net wound up on the stick of Gagne, who immediately fired the puck from a bad angle. Philly teammate Mark Recchi deflected the puck up and it scooted past Brodeur, who was not yet back in proper position to hug the right post. The Flyers' Keith Primeau returned the favour with a bad giveaway of his own that led to Bobby Holik's goal at the 12:13 mark of the second period. Subsequently, the final seven minutes of the second period were among the most exciting of the playoffs -- no goals were scored, but about 10 could have been. The third period started more tentatively and the Devils simply went into a daze. "I don't know what happened," Devils forward Jason Arnott said. "Everything just came to a stop." The Devils' season is on the verge of suffering a similar fate.
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