The Sports Granola

A LOT OF truths tend to get told when game follows game follows game, every other night, for as long as the mathematics allow. Flaws are exposed and excellence is revealed, but it isn’t that, not exactly.

Mostly, a best-of-seven series is where preconceptions go to die. In this one, gone now is the notion that the Pittsburgh Penguins are all about Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, that they are superstars driving a lightly populated bus.

This is so wrong.

The Penguins are a team, in every sense.

The Flyers probably knew it all along - and now that they are down by 3-0 in the Eastern Conference finals, they are not likely to forget. However and whenever it ends, tonight or thereafter, the Flyers and the people who follow them and the people who have watched the Penguins in this series, and all spring, have been left with an enduring impression of skill and teamwork coming at them in black-clad waves.

And defense. The Penguins’ defense really is the story of this series - team defense, persistent defense, real strength and sureness with the puck. We can talk about Malkin and Crosby, and they do have scary skill. We can talk about their speed and their explosiveness because it is all very real.

But defense is winning these games. Commitment to a system, an entire team-wide mind-set, is what the Penguins are using to crush the Flyers.

“To be a winner, it’s tough,” said Michel Therrien, the Penguins coach. “It’s demanding to be a winner. I believe right now we are starting to be recognized as winners.”

Prohibitive favorites now against the Flyers, the Penguins practiced yesterday at the Wachovia Center and said all the stuff you’re supposed to say when you are up 3-0 in a series. I mean, who would have guessed that the Flyers would be desperate tonight and that the fourth win was the toughest? I had never heard that one before.

The Penguins have been attending to every detail. Take this whole trap business. That the Penguins have been doing it, trapping in the neutral zone, in bigger and bigger stretches of games, is clear enough. It should not shock anybody because it remains a winning strategy, even in the new NHL.

It is just that, given the advance billing, given Crosby, given Malkin, given the rock-’em sock-’em robots nature of most of the Flyers-Penguins games this season, the delicate art of strangling the life out of your opponent did not seem as if it would be a featured part of the playbook. But here we are.

“If we give up one or two goals a game, we know we have a good chance to win,” winger Petr Sykora said. “Even our scoring lines know that if we play good defense and get a lead, and make the other team come to us . . . we can feed off of turnovers.”

It is exactly what is happening, and Sykora knows of what he speaks. He won a Cup with the New Jersey Devils, trapping to the limits, in 2000, and he reached the Stanley Cup finals another time with the Devils and another time with Anaheim. But for many of the rest, this is newish territory, something that Therrien has been trying to instill and install over the last 2 years.

“It takes time,” Therrien said. “It doesn’t come naturally, especially with skill players. But they buy into it. This is why they understand, and they play well defensively. They stick to the plan the way we try to play our system. Well, they’re going to get rewards.”

So far, the coach said, the players have bought in to the point where you have 20-year-old kids on the bench scolding their teammates when they freelance out of the confines of the defensive game plan.

To Therrien, “that is leadership, as far as I’m concerned.” The result is this fine web in which the Flyers find themselves entangled.

As Crosby said, “I know that going into games, we know if we take care of our own end, hopefully, our skill will take care of itself. But . . . you have to believe in it, and you have to believe in what you do is going to work, and we do that.

“We have that belief, and I think that’s the most important thing. There are some times where you can go out there and you know you’re doing something right, but you’re not sure if it’s going to work, but that’s not the case with us. We really believe in what we’re going to do and we’re going to have success in what we do.”

You can tell. More than anything else in this Flyers-Penguins series so far, that team-wide defensive belief is the most obvious.

Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen is likely to miss the remainder of the playoffs after he was found to have a blood clot in his left ankle yesterday. It is devastating news for the Flyers as they open their series with the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight.

Ronald Fairman, chief of vascular surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, made the diagnosis.

“I got hit with a shot [from Andrei Markov] in Game 4 against Montreal,” the 33-year-old defenseman said. “It’s been getting sorer and sorer every day. We thought we’d get it checked out because it did not get better and they found a blood clot. . . . This has been an awful day for me.

“It’s the most disappointing thing in my hockey life, for sure. . . . It’s an awful feeling. I was expecting to play. How many times in your lifetime do you get to play in a conference final?”

An MRI exam on Wednesday failed to reveal a problem, general manager Paul Holmgren said, but Fairman found a small blood clot yesterday. Timonen was placed on blood thinners.

“I asked the doctor what could happen and what was the worst-case scenario,” Timonen said. “He said, ‘If you get hit there again, the blood clot might break up and go down to your toes and we’d have to cut off your toes.’ That’s not a very good scenario.”

Timonen said he suffered a similar injury to the same ankle five years ago while playing for Nashville and developed a clot as well.

The Flyers initially treated the injury as a bone bruise, icing the ankle. They called for an MRI test when the defenseman’s pain persisted.

“It continued to bother him more and more each day,” Holmgren said. “To rule out a fracture, we checked it out. It’s a quite serious thing. He needs to go on blood thinners. He’s not going to be available.”

Holmgren said there was a small chance that in a week’s time there would be improvement, but he was not holding out much hope that Timonen would play in this series.

Timonen initially told The Inquirer he was out for the remainder of the playoffs. However, during a conference call with reporters, the Finnish defenseman said Fairman told him the only hope to return was if things went well over the next 10 days and the clot disappeared.

“Kimmo did get some glimmer of hope. Who knows?” Holmgren said. “They don’t know. The clot could respond to the medicine he is taking. It’s right where he ties up his skates, and it would be difficult [to play]. I’m not going to hold out any hope he’s back in this series. We’ll see after that.”

Timonen is the club’s best two-way defenseman. He was expected to play against Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin. His loss greatly affects the Flyers’ chances to win the conference finals.

He was the shutdown defenseman against Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin in the first round and Montreal’s Saku Koivu in the second. His 34 blocked shots in the postseason were second on the team to Jason Smith (37).

The composure Timonen brings to the ice, both carrying the puck and defending against the top offensive players in the league, cannot be replaced. Outside of goalie Marty Biron, he is the Flyers’ best defensive weapon.

“It is what it is. We have to deal with it,” Holmgren said. “It gives someone else an opportunity to step up. Everybody else has to do their part. Obviously, you can’t replace a player who does what Kimmo does for us.”

Veteran Jaroslav Modry will likely fill Timonen’s spot, coach John Stevens said. Modry has far more experience than rookie Ryan Parent.

“I played in Game 5 in Montreal, but it was really hurting me,” Timonen said. “I have to be honest, I didn’t expect this result.”

Timonen did not make the trip to Pittsburgh.

DURING THE LAST game of the Flyers’ regular season, Simon Gagne was standing in the Wachovia Center press box listening to some of the talk about the way the Pittsburgh Penguins were playing.

There was a healthy dose of suspicion that Pittsburgh didn’t want to beat the Flyers. A win would have given the Penguins the Eastern Conference title and landed the Flyers in the eighth spot. That would have meant a first-round matchup between the Flyers and Penguins. Sidney Crosby was a healthy scratch and the Penguins just weren’t going after the Flyers the way they had just a few nights before, when they won in Mellon Arena.

The suspicion was that the Penguins wanted to face the fading and struggling Ottawa Senators and have an easier time in the opening round rather than play a more physical series with the Flyers.

“I don’t know about that,” Gagne said, reacting to the suggestion. “You don’t want to try and pick your opponent. It can come back and bite you.”

Now, with the Eastern Conference final set, you have to wonder if the Penguins really were trying to avoid the Flyers and whether it will come back to bite them. While the Flyers are the underdog in the series, the Penguins have to realize that they are nothing like the team they played in the regular season. That Flyers team had a tendency to play for just portions of a game; this one brings it for 60 minutes.

Look at the Flyers’ series-clinching Game 5 victory Saturday night in the conference quarterfinals at Montreal. The Flyers trailed, 3-1, but rallied to take the lead and then won it, 6-4, after Montreal tied it again. There wasn’t ever a hint of quit or an emotional letdown anywhere on the bench.

Before the playoffs began, defenseman Derian Hatcher still was trying to recover from a broken tibia and wasn’t available. Martin Biron was still a goalie with a playoff question mark over his head, and there were questions about the Flyers’ slower defense keeping pace with Washington’s talented forwards, especially Alex Ovechkin.

Well, Hatcher is back and playing well, Biron is the story of the playoffs so far, the fabled “hot goalie,” and the defense has handled the Capitals’ stars and the waves of speedy and talented Canadiens up front.

So now the Penguins, who eliminated the Rangers in overtime yesterday, are facing a ramped-up, confident, healthy Flyers team that loves to play physical - especially against the Penguins. This is a far more dangerous version of the 2007-08 Flyers than at any time during the regular season, and this could be biteback time.

That is, of course, if you believe the Penguins were trying to lose that last game.

For John Stevens, none of it matters.

“To be honest, we just kind of moved on,” the Flyers coach said. “We were excited to be in the playoffs. Ottawa was obviously banged up. [Pittsburgh] got out of that series quickly and I actually thought the Ranger series would go longer. So Pittsburgh is obviously playing well.

“They’ve made good work of the situation that they’re in and now we’re both in the conference final. It doesn’t really matter how we got here. We’re both here and to me there is not much more motivation needed this time of year. Just being here is enough motivation.

“We’re excited with the opportunity,” Stevens added. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing; the fact that you’re playing is the main thing. It makes for a great series and it’s one we’re excited to be a part of.”

Not buying it 

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren doesn’t believe the theory that the Penguins laid down in the last regular-season game.

“I don’t think that happened,” he said. “I thought Biron made a lot of good saves in that game. I just don’t think that was the case. They didn’t have Crosby, but you don’t know what was going on there. He had a high ankle sprain [earlier in the season that limited him to 53 games].”

Speaking of Gagne 

The Flyers star forward, who called it a season weeks before it was time because of his head injury, has been around the Flyers and traveling with them. He was with the team in Montreal on Saturday night.

But according to Holmgren, there is no chance Gagne will return to play in the postseason.

“He hasn’t done anything in terms of fitness,” Holmgren said yesterday. “I don’t see him being an option no matter how long this thing goes. He’s around and he went to Montreal and it’s probably eating at him, but it’s in his best interest for him to wait.

“I feel bad for him because when you’re an injured player you don’t feel part of the team. I’ve been through it myself and it isn’t easy.”

Big club-little club 

Now that it’s official that the Flyers will play the Penguins in the conference final starting this week, it marks the first time since 2002 that both the NHL and AHL teams from the same two franchises have met for a playoff series at the same time.

The Phantoms, the Flyers’ AHL affiliate, are tied, 1-1, with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Pittsburgh’s affiliate, in the AHL quarterfinals.

The Flyers-Penguins series will start in Pittsburgh. The Phantoms and Baby Pens will meet in the Wachovia Center tonight and Wednesday for Games 3 and 4.

In 2002, the Toronto Maple Leafs played the New York Islanders while their AHL teams, St. John’s and Bridgeport, also played. *

Derian Hatcher called it the longest 15 minutes ever, sitting in the dressing room after being tossed from the game on a five-minute boarding call.

When the Flyers defenseman left the ice last night, his team had a 3-0 lead. Before his penalty expired, Montreal had scored twice.

“I told some of the players that watching that last 15 minutes was a lot more tiring and mentally exhausting,” Hatcher said.

It was the same for his teammates as the Flyers once again fell back on the magnificent effort of goalie Marty Biron (32 saves) to defeat the Canadiens, 3-2, at the Wachovia Center in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Flyers lead the series, two games to one, with Game 4 here tomorrow.

“I don’t think it was that hard a hit, and if I had not let up, my arms would not have gotten in front of me,” Hatcher said of his boarding call. “I shouldn’t have let up.”

The Canadiens certainly didn’t.

They got some calls in their favor again as the Flyers continue to find themselves on the wrong end of Canada’s chosen team in this series, fighting the Habs and the officials.

“In the third period, with all the penalties we took, we had no choice but to be back on our heels,” said center Danny Briere. “The guys killing the penalties did a marvelous job. There’s a lot of frustration with the way the game was reffed, but I’d rather not go there. . . . I like the way we battled. We buckled down and fought through all the adversity.”

The Flyers chased rookie goalie Carey Price after two periods, scoring three goals on just 12 shots. Backup Jaroslav Halak, making his playoff debut, faced only two shots.

But with a 3-0 lead, the Flyers again made life difficult with Hatcher’s boarding call against Francis Bouillon. Montreal used the five-minute power play to get goals from Tomas Plekanec and Saku Koivu. If not for Biron’s skill at the end, they might have lost.

“They got a couple of goals, but we still had about a minute to kill after their goals,” Biron said. “We did that, we had a big kill late in the third period, and I think that made the difference for us tonight.”

Biron has outplayed Price in the series.

“He has been our best player in this series,” coach John Stevens said of Biron. “We probably felt going in that he would have to be. That win tonight to me was a win on desperation, especially at the end there, and I think we need to combine that desperation with better execution, and it will make the job a lot easier.

“I would like to see us get the lead, keep the lead, and pull away as opposed to making it that exciting.”

The Flyers also had a major scare: R.J. Umberger, who also scored, took a hip check from Plekanec in his sore left knee in the third period and was helped off the ice. He returned.

“He stuck his hip out,” said an angry Umberger. “It’s a long series, and we know who it was. The [knee] brace saved me.”

The Flyers did yeoman’s work defensively on the Canadiens, using their sticks the entire way to block 20 shots while killing off six of eight power plays, including a five-on-three midway into the opening period.

Of course, it helped that Montreal’s Christopher Higgins muffed a pass from Alex Kovalev with an open left side of the net staring at him. Then Biron made a glove save on Mark Streit, and Andrei Markov nailed the post.

“Unfortunately for us, we’ve got guys that both kill penalties and play the power play,” Stevens said. “It’s pretty taxing when they have to play that many minutes, and you have guys like Danny [Briere] and Vinny [Prospal] who don’t get on the ice enough.”

It was a 0-0 affair until Scottie Upshall scored 7 minutes, 4 seconds into the second period on an extended shift. Coming back into the Habs’ zone a third time, Upshall took a drop pass from Joffrey Lupul in the right circle, then used rookie defenseman Ryan O’Byrne as a screen on Price before beating him. It was Upshall’s second goal of the playoffs.

Lupul “made a great play carrying the puck up the ice with a lot of speed,” Upshall said. “He chipped it outside and carried his speed through the middle, and I used him and then their D-man as a screen and made a good shot.”

The Flyers got a shorthanded goal from Mike Richards at 15:12, and then Umberger got his fifth goal of the playoffs, and fourth of the series, making it 3-0.

“All year you fight for them, and right now the puck is bouncing, and I’m in the right spot,” Umberger said.

A sense of doom that apparently is bred into so many of Philadelphia’s sports fans prevailed Monday night as the Flyers dejectedly skated off the ice and the Wachovia Center emptied as if it had just been condemned.

The Flyers had let a three-games-to-one lead in their first-round series against Washington evaporate and had to drag their weary and sore bodies back to the nation’s capital for a deciding Game 7 last night at the Verizon Center.

After the Game 6 loss, coach John Stevens said the Flyers would learn what they were made of, his blunt way of issuing a challenge to his players.

And in a game in which every inch of ice was contested, the Flyers met the challenge.

Joffrey Lupul, who missed an open net late in the first period, poked in a rebound on a power play early in overtime to give the Flyers a 3-2 win over the Caps to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2004.

“It bounced to the side of the net, and I did what I’m supposed to do and put it in the net,” said Lupul, who was without a goal in the series until he tucked in a rebound of Kimmo Timonen’s shot with nine seconds remaining on the power play. “It feels great. I’m still catching my breath right now, but I’m sure it’ll hit me in a few hours.”

The Flyers face a quick turnaround as they open the Eastern Conference semifinals tomorrow night against Montreal, the regular-season conference champion.

As soon as Lupul’s shot went in, 6 minutes, 6 seconds into overtime, a relieved Stevens engaged in a bear hug with his assistant coaches. Stevens has endured a season in which his team went long stretches without key players who were injured, but he has stayed on an even keel.

“I love to see this group have some success,” he said. “To see the excitement in the players and throughout the organization is great, especially after last season.”

The Flyers got an outstanding performance from goalie Marty Biron, who made 39 saves and kept his team alive during long stretches when the Caps had the puck. There were concerns about Biron going into the game because he was 0-5 on the second night of back-to-back games during the regular season.

“I guess he answered those questions about back-to-back,” Stevens said. “He was terrific. He had to be. That might be his best outing as a Flyer, and it was good timing for it.”

On a night when Stevens shortened his bench and occasionally mixed his lines, Scottie Upshall, who has been in and out of Stevens’ doghouse this season, may have been the Flyers’ most effective forward. Timonen, who spent the series dealing with Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin, and Braydon Coburn each logged more than 28 minutes of ice time.

“Kimmo was unbelievable,” Stevens said. “He looked like he could play all night out there.”

Upshall answered Nicklas Backstrom’s power-play goal with one of his own in the first period. The Flyers could have sagged after squandering a four-minute power play at the end of the first period that included 1:42 with a two-man advantage. That period ended with Lupul’s looking up in disbelief after missing an open net.

But the Flyers caught a break when Sami Kapanen shot into a wide-open net to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead midway through the second period. The net opened for Kapanen when Caps goalie Cristobal Huet was wiped out in a collision with teammate Shaone Morrisonn. The red-clad crowd screamed foul, believing that the Flyers’ Patrick Thoresen had driven Morrisonn into the goalie.

The fans’ mood changed when Ovechkin sent a wicked wrist shot from high in the face-off circle past Biron with 4:31 to go in the period, and the teams proceeded to play as if there were no tomorrow. Of course, there wasn’t for the loser.

Afterward, center Danny Briere talked about the Flyers’ resilience during a season that included a 10-game losing streak, the loss of their top forward, Simon Gagne, and a strong stretch drive to make the playoffs.

“It’s not just about tonight,” he said. “It’s about the 10-game losing streak earlier in the season. The way we finished against very good teams down the stretch. Losing the first game [of the Washington series] after leading by two goals and blowing that lead in the third period. And once again, losing the last two games when we could have clinched.

“There’s been times when this group had a chance to fold, to give up, basically, and we keep coming back up. The confidence keeps growing, and it’s a very positive thing.”

The Flyers had squandered three-games-to-one leads twice before - in 1988 against Washington in the first round on Dale Hunter’s overtime goal; and in 2000 against New Jersey in the Eastern Conference finals in a seventh game long remembered for Scott Stevens’ leaving Eric Lindros with a concussion from an open-ice hit.

The Capitals haven’t won a playoff series since 1998 and hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2003.

Since the NHL went to the best-of-seven format in 1939, the home team had won 77 of 121 for 64 percent.

Last night was only the eighth time in history that Games 6 and 7 were played on consecutive nights, and only the fourth time since 1950. The Flyers are 7-6 in seventh games.

With a pivotal Game 3 shifting to South Philadelphia tonight, one has to ask two questions - which Flyers team will show up and which Capitals will show up.  Both squads have shown their vulnerability and at times brilliance.  In terms of brilliance, the Capitals won only one period while the Flyers have won 5.

On Monday, the Capitals did not practice but had a bunch of meetings before taking a train up to Philly.  The long shifts on Sunday by Washington could be a factor of fatigue on Tuesday night. 

Besides his game winning goal in Game 1, Alex Ovechkin has been a non-factor in the series.  The superstar has shown his frustrations by slamming his stick on the ice and taking a whack at Scottie Upshall.  In Game 2, Ovechkin only recorded 5 shots on goal but lead all forwards in ice time.  That doesn’t match-up.

At the start of the game, the Orange&Black can’t get over hyped by the crowd and lose their composure as Washington will, they always do, begin with an up tempo game; rolling line after line. 

The home ice could be a factor for the Flyers.  Philly doesn’t need cheap gimmicks to get those in attendance into the game, but there will be a sea of orange as t-shirts distributed.

I’m concerned about Marty Biron’s psyche at the start of this game.  His mind could be on the arrival of his new daughter (not yet named) and the pressure of playing his third playoff game in front of the home crowd could be a distraction.  I don’t know, I’m just filling space here.

Enrico over at the700level.com was at the game on Friday night in the Verizon Center.  He commented on the video montages during stoppages of play, and some revisionist history that was occurring.  There’s a lot of that in Washington already, and it’s crept into sports.  I still think it’s comical that our nation’s capital is rooting for a Russian as if he’s a founding father.

Derian Hatcher could be ready for the game Tuesday and take the place of Jaroslav Modry who’s been a defensive pariah late this season.

The Flyers will win Game 3 if Biron remains solid and the front line of Danny Briere and Vinny Prospal finish on Washington’s mistakes. Also, the Flyers defense needs to maintain their game plan of keeping the Caps shooters to the outside, thus, reducing their scoring chances.

The Caps will win if they take shorter shifts and are able to avoid the smothering defensive system the Flyers are playing. Cristobal Huet, like Biron, can not let in the soft goal and the Caps have to worry less about hitting someone and worry more about making better plays in the nuetral zone.

You can stop holding your breath now.

Flyers center Danny Briere expects to be back in the lineup Friday night when the Flyers open the NHL Eastern Conference playoffs against the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center.

Briere, who has a sprained left knee, skated today on his own for the first time since being injured on April 2. The Flyers had an off day.

“I’m feeling great,” Briere said. “It’s not going to be a problem. I’ll be fine to start the series on Friday.”

Briere’s sprain is nowhere near as bad as the one R.J. Umberger incurred March 16 in Pittsburgh. Umberger missed two weeks and six games. Briere missed only the final two games of the regular season after taking a knee-on-knee hit from Jarkko Ruuto on April 2 in Pittsburgh.

“I don’t know for sure on Danny, but I think he is ahead of schedule from where [Umberger] was because he has gotten back on the ice a lot sooner than [Umberger] did,” said Flyers coach John Stevens. “We’ll wait and see how Danny responds to being on the ice. But we’re hopeful.”

Like Umberger, Briere will wear a knee brace the remainder of the postseason. Stevens said he did not think Briere is finding the brace cumbersome. Umberger said recently he hardly even notices his.

Briere would not comment on the brace.

“I felt good on the ice,” Briere said. “If we had pushed it, there’s a chance I could have played in [yesterday's] game against Pittsburgh. But when we clinched on Friday and with the way things went, we figured it was safer to rest up for the playoffs.”

Briere will practice with the Flyers tomorrow.

Derian Hatcher also skated today. He is recovering from a fractured tibia and is not expected to be available until later in the series.

“It’s somewhat of a battle,” Hatcher said. “The last three or four days, we’ve been doing a ton [of workouts], and I’m trying to get over some the soreness and stiffness.”

Evgeni Malkin can do two things nicely. He can play keep-away with the puck. And he can fire a laser wrist shot that freezes a goalie as it burns the net.

Malkin’s 47th goal last night at Mellon Arena doomed the Flyers to a 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. With two games remaining, the Flyers still have not clinched a playoff berth.

During a second-period Penguins power play, Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made a splendid shorthanded pad stop against Sami Kapanen. On the regroup, Malkin took a pass from Ryan Whitney off the boards from a standing position, then sped into the Flyers’ zone and buried a shot against Martin Biron to break a 2-2 tie.

It was the game’s most critical play, especially coming seconds after Fleury’s save. It changed momentum amid a tense, playoff-style atmosphere.

“Obviously, their power play and special teams were the difference, because they capitalized on their power plays and we didn’t,” Flyers center Mike Richards said. “Lupes [Joffey Lupul] and I said it. It was like a playoff game. Usually, special teams are the difference in the playoffs, and it was tonight.”

Pittsburgh started the night just 1 for 17 on the power play in its last three games, but it scored four times on the Flyers (1 for 5).

“They got a puck off our guy in the first, a five-on-three goal in the second, a goal I would want back, and then [Sidney] Crosby makes a great deflection at the end - four totally different goals,” Biron said. “They have the personnel” to do that.

Biron made outstanding saves to keep it a one-goal game in the third period before Crosby’s between-the-legs redirected shot for the final power-play goal helped the Penguins clinch the Atlantic Division crown.

“We’ve got two games left,” Flyers center Jeff Carter said. “We’ve got to pull out a couple of wins.”

The game featured two early fights and fierce contact throughout.

“We had two penalties on one play there, and it certainly wasn’t in our favor,” Flyers coach John Stevens said about a couple of second-period power-play goals. “Their power play was the difference. They have a very dangerous power play. They get that many opportunities [six], it’s not good for us.”

Neither is this: Late in the game, center Danny Briere took a left knee-on-knee hit from Jarkko Ruutu.

“I tried to go inside, and he stuck his leg out there,” Briere said. “I didn’t realize it was him coming. Everyone knows he’s one of the dirtiest players in the league. If I would have had time to look and see it was him, I would have protected myself better.”

Kimmo Timonen missed most of the second period after being hit by a shot on the left ankle. Both players said they would play tomorrow against New Jersey.

The Flyers went into the game needing a victory and a Carolina loss in regulation against Tampa Bay to clinch a playoff berth.

“I didn’t know that,” winger Mike Knuble said before the game, adding that most of the team didn’t know it, either. It didn’t matter: Carolina won, 6-2.

The Flyers did score first. Scott Hartnell got things going with his 24th goal at 8 minutes, 58 seconds with a shot from the right slot that cleanly beat Fleury.

It took the Penguins less than two minutes to tie it after a penalty by Carter, who knocked Hal Gill into Fleury to draw a roughing call. Sergei Gonchar took a pass across the blue line, skated in a few steps, than unleashed a wrister that Biron couldn’t see because Braydon Coburn was screening him.

Coburn and Carter helped get that one back with the Flyers’ only power-play goal. Coburn’s shot in the high slot hit Lupul in the crease. Carter quickly found the rebound before Fleury did, scoring his 29th goal at 13:13.

Tempers flared in the second period. Hartnell took the butt end of Gonchar’s stick to the face, with no call. It set Hartnell off for several shifts and he accrued back-to-back minors, giving Pittsburgh a five-on-three advantage.

“Someone jumped on me, they were whacking away at our goalie, and you have to be able to protect your goalie in this league,” Hartnell said. “I was just trying to push my way out and it put us down two men.”

Pittsburgh scored two more power-play goals - one during a five-on-three - in the second period to regain the lead, 3-2.

Crosby tied the game with a one-timer from the right circle during the Pens’ two-man advantage. Malkin made it 3-2 after Fleury’s clutch shorthanded save at the other end.

“It was a battle the whole game, one of the closest you can get to a playoff atmosphere and kind of crazy,” Hartnell said. “Right down to the wire.”

Patrick Thoresen doesn’t pick up many points on the ice. Instead, he makes plays. The Norwegian winger made a critical play last night at Nassau Coliseum that helped the Flyers get a late goal before center Danny Briere won it in a shoot-out, 4-3.

Staring at a 3-2 deficit with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, Thoresen went into the corner, stripped defenseman Radek Martinek of the puck, then fed Mike Richards at the net for the tying goal, setting up overtime.

“We lost the face there, and I jumped on the defenseman and lifted his stick,” said Thoresen, who has played 18 games here. “Got the puck, another defenseman came to me, and Richie was alone in front. I got the puck through.”

It was a pivotal play with huge overtones. With Boston’s 4-0 rout of Ottawa, the Flyers (91 points) remained seventh in the Eastern Conference. Washington also won, staying three points behind them. Any combination of four points involving the Flyers’ winning and the Capitals’ losing clinches a playoff berth for the Flyers.

“Oh, yeah, Washington was winning, and if we had lost this game, it would have been so tight,” Thoresen said. “. . . These two points were unbelievable. It’s been like that the last 10 games.”

The Flyers lost Friday’s shoot-out in New Jersey. This time, Briere went with a double move, beating goalie Wade Dubielewicz with a backhander. Dubielewicz had been 6-0 lifetime in overtime/shoot-outs.

“It wasn’t the prettiest move,” Briere said. “When I tried to go backhand, I fanned on the puck a little bit, and that is why it was so slow coming to me. In the end, it worked.”

Meanwhile, Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki, who had not played since March 18 against Atlanta, was terrific, stoning all three shooters.

“I felt pretty good about myself,” said Niittymaki, who had not played in four games. “I’ve been practicing breakaways a lot this year in practice. It was my first shoot-out this year. I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I felt pretty confident and we’ve been scoring some goals in the shoot-out lately.”

He got some help as the Flyers killed off two penalties in overtime.

“It might be the gutsiest effort of the year,” coach John Stevens said. “We showed a lot of resilience. They got a fortuitous bounce on their first goal. We had all kinds of pressure on them and they make it 2-0 and you think we’re going to go away and we don’t.”

The Flyers trailed by two goals early and were behind, 2-1, in the third when Joffrey Lupul scored his 19th goal at 3 minutes, 22 seconds. It was Lupul’s first goal in nine games since returning to the lineup from a right ankle sprain. His last goal was Feb. 14 against Tampa Bay.

The Islanders got the go-ahead goal at 10:19 when former Flyers defenseman Freddy Meyer chipped the puck off the wall to Frans Nielsen in full stride. Nielsen went into hyper-gear around Braydon Coburn (minus-3), rifling a shot from the left circle.

Five minutes later, Richards tied it with his 28th goal off Thoresen’s assist.

“I lost it cleanly,” Richards said of the face-off. “They weren’t expecting it, and Thor made a great pass to me.”

The Isles got a strange goal from Richard Park in the first period. Defenseman Aaron Johnson sent the puck off the side boards, and it went the length of the ice behind the Flyers’ net, then took an odd bounce off the boards, then off Niittymaki’s stick.

Park crashed the net, slid, and swiped the puck into the net with both Kimmo Timonen and Coburn on him. In the second period, the Flyers unleashed a season-high 23 shots, but a turnover and coverage mix-up also resulted in Blake Comeau’s making it 2-0.

Briere got one back at 15:24 coming out of the penalty box, giving the Flyers a power play when both teams had been going four-on-four. With the puck tied up behind the Isles’ net, Richards gave Briere a pass in the left slot. Briere fanned on his initial attempt, then swung again, going high and short-side for his 31st goal of the season.

The Flyers trailed by a goal for 46 minutes at Madison Square Garden. A month ago, that would have finished them, but last night they dug deeper within themselves to defeat the New York Rangers, 2-1, in overtime.

Mike Richards scored the game-winner at 2 minutes, 16 seconds of the extra session.

“It was tight both ways and both of us had to earn opportunities,” Richards said. “. . . We got a lucky break at the end.”

Flyers defenseman Jason Smith set up the winning goal when he picked off a Sean Avery pass to feed Richards, who fired a backhanded shot over goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s glove hand.

“I was going to try and go forehand,” Richards said of his 27th goal. “The defense was right there and I shoveled it in, and it just bounced and trickled in over him. A garbage goal, yeah. It wasn’t the prettiest or where I wanted to shoot it.”

The victory kept the Flyers in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 88 points, two ahead of eighth-place Boston, which defeated Toronto. The Flyers have five games left; Boston has six.

“That was huge,” said Danny Briere, who scored the tying goal 7:32 into the third period. ”Lately, we have dropped a couple of games where we were up by a goal or two in the third period and we would find a way to lose. So, tonight was huge for us to come back in the game and tie it up and find a way to win in overtime. . . . It is nice to get one back, especially at this time of the year. Every point is so critical.”

Lundqvist cherished a 1-0 lead until Briere scored his 30th goal off a give-and-go assist from Vinny Prospal. The two have combined for 10 goals and 12 assists in 16 games together.

“We talked before the game this was an opportunity for us to really take a step as a team,” said coach John Stevens. “I thought we played with a lot of composure, our veteran guys really stepped up again, and we got contributions right through our lineup.”

Stevens began the game by matching the 5-foot-8, 179-pound Briere against 6-1, 210-pound center Brandon Dubinsky. On the Rangers’ first shift, they kept the puck in the Flyers’ end with Dubinsky and Martin Straka controlling it.

That allowed Jaromir Jagr to wheel around the net with the puck, lose Kimmo Timonen in the process, and toss a quick turnaround shot out of the right circle that beat Marty Biron at 1:41.

It was Jagr’s 40th career goal against the Flyers, and Stevens quickly changed the matchup.

During a power play in the final four minutes of the second period, Biron made two difficult saves against Dan Girardi and one against Chris Drury. It could have been 3-0 then.

“Sometimes I need help from the guys, like I need the power play to come through or the [penalty kill] to come through, and sometimes you have big saves,” said Biron, who made 31 saves. “When you’re in a situation and it’s 1-0 and the game is there for us to have, desperation sets in. Penalty killing is all about desperation. And the work ethic. And that is where we got our momentum in this game.”

They certainly didn’t have the momentum early as the Flyers were outshot by 21-12 through two periods while being muscled off the puck.

Briere’s first shot of the game came four minutes into the second, a hard drive down the slot off Lundqvist’s shoulder. The Flyers’ first power play didn’t come until 12:49, and during the two power plays they had in the period, their only scoring chance came when Braydon Coburn laced a shot from the right circle into Lundqvist’s chest.

Still, the Flyers stuck with it and capitalized off a turnover.

“I’m very disappointed,” Avery said. “I made a terrible pass and they went on to score. We made two mistakes, primarily both by me, and that’s the difference in the game.”

The season series ended with the Rangers winning five of the eight games.

“The way we’ve been playing the last few games has been a pretty good team effort,” Timonen said. “For two periods, we were not on top of our game, but it was 1-0. It was so close, we just needed one [goal] and it was our game.”

It was theirs for the taking in overtime, and the Flyers stole it.