| |
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Philadelphia Flyers were just as
confused about how they salvaged this game as they were by the way
they nearly blew it.
|  | | Colorado's Shean Donovan, left, pays the price for roaming in front of goalie John Vanbiesbrouck with Philadelphia's Ulf Samuelsson patrolling the crease. |
Valeri Zelepukin saved the Flyers with a goal that was supposed to be a pass, scoring with 8.2 seconds left in overtime to give
Philadelphia a 5-4 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.
The winning goal was just as befuddling as the collapse that
preceded it. Colorado erased a 4-0 deficit with four goals on eight
shots in 8:09 in the third, sending Flyers general manager Bob
Clarke pacing around the executive box high atop the First Union
Center.
"I believed it because I saw it in the net," said Zelepukin,
whose pass intended for wide-open trailer Chris Therien somehow
slid between Marc Denis' pads. "I saw it hit the pad and go in."
With captain Eric Lindros home with a viral infection, the Flyers won for the fifth time in six games and tied New Jersey for first place in the Atlantic Division. Colorado lost for the third time in four games.
Had it ended in a tie, it would have been another devastating
setback for an inconsistent team that started the season 0-5-1,
then won four straight, then showed the best and worst of its
Jeckyll and Hyde routine in the same game Thursday night.
"It was one of those games where goals are going in left and
right," said Flyers coach Roger Neilson, who was on the bench
despite a debilitating virus. "The last shot wins, and we got
it."
Zelepukin skated in on goaltender Denis and flicked a backhanded
shot between his pads. Actually, Zelepukin, whose eyes bulged as he skated in on a half-empty
net, was trying to slide a pass to Therien.
"I saw Eric Desjardins in the training room, and he said there
was nobody near me," said Therien, not known for his scoring.
"Anyway, we'll take it."
Trailing 4-0 on Mark Greig's first goal 2:08 into the third,
Colorado stunned the Flyers with four straight goals. Alex Tanguay
and Milan Hejduk each scored twice.
"There's a lot of experience in this dressing room," Tanguay
said. "Between the second and the third periods, the guys said
nobody is going to quit."
Tanguay made things interesting with two goals in 3:13 to make
it 4-2. First, Tanguay one-timed Chris Drury's long pass after it
bounced out of the corner for a goal that slipped past John
Vanbiesbrouck's stick.
Tanguay struck again -- and sent Clarke for a walk to the back of
the executive box -- with a breakaway goal with 11:27 remaining. He
got the puck on a turnover near the blue line and beat a sprawling
Vanbiesbrouck on the stick side again to make it 4-2.
"That shows you they are a high-powered team," Vanbiesbrouck said.
Hejduk continued the stunning comeback bid, scoring 38 seconds
into a power play to make it 4-3 with 7:44 remaining. While Ulf
Samuelsson cleared his man from the crease, Dan McGillis lost
Hejduk in front leading to the goal.
Neilson called a timeout, and Clarke turned and appeared to spit
on the floor upstairs. An ominous presence, Clarke stood for the
duration of the game.
"These things happen once a year," Neilson said. "This
happened to be it."
Sensing it was time to go for the kill, Hejduk scored again with
6:31 left, taking a long rebound, skating in unguarded and beating
Vanbiesbrouck on the stick side yet again.
It was a long way back from Desjardins' crushing power-play goal
with two-tenths of a second left in the second period.
The Flyers went on a power play with 3:20 left in the second and
bombarded Denis with pressure. At one point, Joe Sakic and Denis lost their sticks, but the Flyers couldn't score.
Shjon Podein gave his stick to Denis, and John LeClair deflected
a shot over the glass as the power play ended. But Greg De Vries
shoved Daymond Langkow, giving Philadelphia another advantage with
1:04 left in the period.
Desjardins made it 3-0 with two-tenths of a second left, a
backbreaking goal that left Adam Deadmarsh and Eric Messier
kneeling on the ice for several seconds in disbelief.
"We had nothing to lose going into the third period,"
Deadmarsh said.
The Flyers were on the power play for the last 36 seconds of the
third and the opening 1:24 of overtime after Aaron Miller's
crosschecking penalty, but managed only three shots.
Mark Recchi had a goal and two assists, giving him 18 goals and 35 points in 31 games against Colorado -- formerly Quebec.
| |
ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Colorado Clubhouse
Philadelphia Clubhouse
RECAPS
Boston 7
Tampa Bay 3
Calgary 4
Ottawa 3
Philadelphia 5
Colorado 4
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Valeri Zelepukin wins the game in OT.
avi: 605 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Milan Hejduk beats John Vanbiesbrouck to tie the game.
avi: 691 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Mikael Renberg rebounds Mark Recchi's shot and scores.
avi: 591 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
|
